The World According To Garp

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What to expect

A masterpiece from one of the great contemporary American writers.

'A wonderful novel, full of energy and art, at once funny and heartbreaking...terrific' WASHINGTON POST

Anniversary edition with a new afterword from the author.

A worldwide bestseller since its publication, Irving's classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T. S. Garp, struggling writer and illegitimate son of Jenny Fields - an unlikely feminist heroine ahead of her time.

Beautifully written, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP is a powerfully compelling and compassionate coming-of-age novel that established John Irving as one of the most imaginative writers of his generation.

'A diamond sleeping in the dark, chipped out at last for our enrichment and delight...As approachable as it is brilliant' COSMOPOLITAN

Critics Review

  • Absolutely extraordinary…a roller-coaster ride that leaves one breathless, exhausted, elated and tearful

    LA TIMES
  • Like all great works of art, Irving’s novel seems always to have been there, a diamond sleeping in the dark, chipped out at last for our enrichment and delight…As approachable as it is brilliant, Garp pulses with vital energy

    COSMOPOLITAN
  • The most powerful and profound novel about women written by a man in our generation …. Like all extraordinary books, Garp defies synopsis … a marvellous, important, permanent novel by a serious artist of remarkable powers

    CHICAGO TIMES
  • A wonderful novel, full of energy and art, at once funny and heartbreaking. You know it is true. It is also terrific

    WASHINGTON POST
  • Iconic … The World According to Garp is a huge narrative full of complex emotional rollercoasters typical of a writer’s life … fascinatingly unique

    NEW YORK TIMES
  • A social tragi-comedy of such velocity that it reads rather like a domestic sequel to Catch-22

    OBSERVER

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