John Irving

En tankeläsande flicka, en soptippspojke, en kringresande cirkus – med sin nya roman bevisar John Irving på nytt varför han är en av vår tids mest lästa författare. Precis som i succéer som Garp och hans värld och Hotell New Hampshire är Mysteriernas gata fylld av den originella blandningen av humor och allvar som gjort Irvings berättarkonst känd över hela världen. Juan Diego lever ett stillsamt liv som författare i USA. När en gammal skrivarelev övertalar honom att besöka Filippinerna beger han sig ut på ett äventyr som lika mycket kommer att utspelas i hans drömmar. Han slår följe med två mystiska kvinnor, experimenterar med både betablockerare och Viagra och hamnar allt oftare i barndomens magiska Mexiko. Där återupplever Juan Diego skeendena som format honom: uppväxten på soptippen tillsammans med lillasystern som kan läsa andras tankar, vistelsen på det katolska barnhemmet, mötet med den amerikanske missionären – och de avgörande händelserna på cirkusen. Mysteriernas gata är en varm och ödesmättad berättelse om att leva i både nuet och det förflutna, och om vad som händer när världarna möts.

Mozart's piano concertos stand alongside his operas and symphonies as his most frequently performed and best loved music. They have attracted the attention of generations of musicologists who have explored their manifold meanings from a variety of viewpoints. In this study, John Irving brings together the various strands of scholarship surrounding Mozart's concertos including analytical approaches, aspects of performance practice and issues of compositional genesis based on investigation of manuscript and early printed editions. Treating the concertos collectively as a repertoire, rather than as individual works, the first section of the book tackles broad thematic issues such as the role of the piano concerto in Mozart's quasi-freelance life in late eighteenth-century Vienna, the origin of his concertos in earlier traditions of concerto writing; eighteenth-century theoretical frameworks for the understanding of movement forms, subsequent historical shifts in the perception of the concerto's form, listening strategies and performance practices. This is followed by a 'documentary register' which proceeds through all 23 original works, drawing together information on the source materials. Accounts of the concertos' compositional genesis, early performance history and reception are also included here, drawing extensively on the Mozart family correspondence and other contemporary reports. Drawing together and synthesizing this wealth of material, Irving provides an invaluable reference source for those already familiar with this repertoire.

As a teenager, he struggles to keep anything secret â?? Lupe knows all the worst things that go through his mind. What a terrible burden it is to know â?? or to think you know â?? your future, or worse, the future of someone you love.

Mozart's piano sonatas are among the most familiar of his works and stand alongside those of Haydn and Beethoven as staples of the pianist's repertoire. In this study, John Irving looks at a wide selection of contextual situations for Mozart's sonatas, focusing on the variety of ways in which they assume identities and achieve meanings. In particular, the book seeks to establish the provisionality of the sonatas' notated texts, suggesting that the texts are not so much identifiers as possibilities and that their identity resides in the usage. Close attention is paid to reception matters, analytical approaches, organology, the role of autograph manuscripts, early editions and editors, and aspects of historical performance practice - all of which go beyond the texts in opening windows onto Mozart's sonatas. Treating the sonatas collectively as a repertoire, rather than as individual works, the book surveys broad thematic issues such as the role of historical writing about music in defining a generic space for Mozart's sonatas, their construction within pedagogical traditions, the significance of sound as opposed to sight in these works (and in particular their sound on fortepianos of the later eighteenth-century) , and the creative role of the performer in their representation beyond the frame of the text. Drawing together and synthesizing this wealth of material, Irving provides an invaluable reference source for those already familiar with this repertoire.

Mysterieavenyen er en fargerik fortelling, som gjennom et halvt århundre, på tvers av kontinenter, beretter om en manns dramatiske liv. Juan Diego vokser opp i slummen i Mexico, og etter en turbulent barndom blir han bortadoptert til USA. Der utdanner han seg til lærer og blir etter hvert en suksessrik forfatter. I boken møter vi en aldrende Juan Diego på reise ut i verden. Med seg i bagasjen er drømmene og minnene hans; om de fattige foreldrene og søsteren Lupe. Mysterieavenyen sprudler av John Irvings fortellerglede, med hans skakke og eksentriske persongalleri og skildringer, der han våger å ta velkjente elementer inn i ukjent landskap. John Irving er en av våre mest anerkjente og elskede forfattere, med sterke romaner som Garps bok og I en og samme person bak seg. Med utgivelser i mer en 35 land er han blitt en internasjonal bestselgende forfatter. Mysterieavenyen er hans fjortende roman.« ... mer enn noe er Mysterieavenyen en engasjerende, underholdende og litt alvorlig hyllest til litteraturens fantastiske verden.» Sindre Hovdenakk, VG

"Thoroughly modern, accessibly brainy, hilariously eccentric, and beautifully human." --The New York Times Book Review John Irving returns to the themes that established him as one of our most admired and beloved authors in this absorbing novel of fate and memory. In Avenue of Mysteries, Juan Diego--a fourteen-year-old boy, who was born and grew up in Mexico--has a thirteen-year-old sister. Her name is Lupe, and she thinks she sees what's coming--specifically, her own future and her brother's. Lupe is a mind reader; she doesn't know what everyone is thinking, but she knows what most people are thinking. Regarding what has happened, as opposed to what will, Lupe is usually right about the past; without your telling her, she knows all the worst things that have happened to you. Lupe doesn't know the future as accurately. But consider what a terrible burden it is, if you believe you know the future--especially your own future, or, even worse, the future of someone you love. What might a thirteen-year-old girl be driven to do, if she thought she could change the future? As an older man, Juan Diego will take a trip to the Philippines, but what travels with him are his dreams and memories; he is most alive in his childhood and early adolescence in Mexico. As we grow older--most of all, in what we remember and what we dream--we live in the past. Sometimes, we live more vividly in the past than in the present. Avenue of Mysteries is the story of what happens to Juan Diego in the Philippines, where what happened to him in the past--in Mexico--collides with his future.

"A remarkable novel. . . . A Prayer for Owen Meany is a rare creation. ... An amazingly brave piece of work ... so extraordinary, so original, and so enriching. . . . Readers will come to the end feeling sorry to leave this] richly textured and carefully wrought world." --STEPHEN KING, Washington PostI am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice--not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany. In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys--best friends--are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary. A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

A deluxe collector's edition of John Irving's beloved A Prayer for Owen Meany--a coming-of-age tale that ranks among the most cherished American classics, including To Kill a Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye. In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys--best friends--are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary.

I en människa är en roman om åtrå, hemligheter och sexuell identitet, kryddad med kärlek, Shakespeare och crossdressing. Billys episka och tragikomiska uppväxtskildring tar sin början i 1940-talets Vermont och för läsaren genom årtionden, från Billys första förälskelse i bibliotekarien miss Frost - som han ska komma att återkomma till under resten av sitt liv - vidare till Wien, Los Angeles och aidsepidemins New York och tillbaka till födelsestaden igen. Med varsam hand och en stor portion svart humor skildrar Irving en del av vår historia sedd ur Billys perspektiv, ett sekel av krig, depression, politisk revolution och sexuell frigörelse. Det är en värld i ständig förändring, som angår oss alla. John Irving anknyter till världssuccéerna Garp och hans värld och Ciderhusreglerna i denna varma och angelägna berättelse. I en människa är fylld av den för Irving så typiska kombinationen av humor och stort allvar och är ett mästarprov på den berättarkonst som gjort honom känd över hela världen.

A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love â?? tormented, funny, and affecting â?? and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences.

From the author of A Prayer for Owen Meany and The World According to Garp comes "his most daringly political, sexually transgressive, and moving novel in well over a decade" (Vanity Fair). A New York Times bestselling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love--tormented, funny, and affecting--and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a "sexual suspect," a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 in his landmark novel of "terminal cases," The World According to Garp. In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy's friends and lovers--a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself "worthwhile."

"A remarkable novel. . . . A Prayer for Owen Meany is a rare creation. ... An amazingly brave piece of work ... so extraordinary, so original, and so enriching. . . . Readers will come to the end feeling sorry to leave this] richly textured and carefully wrought world." --STEPHEN KING, Washington PostI am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice--not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany. In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys--best friends--are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary. A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick