Showing results for "Owen Jones" in Genre Fiction

Of all of John Irving's books, this is the one that lends itself best to audio. In print, Owen Meany's dialogue is set in capital letters; for this production, Irving himself selected Joe Barrett to deliver Meany's difficult voice as intended. In the summer of 1953, two 11-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 and terrifying.

Lek was born the eldest child of four in a typical rice farming family. She did not expect to do anything any different from the other girls in her class in the northern rice belt of Thailand. Typically that would be: work in the fields for a few years; have a few babies; give them to mum to take care of and get back to work until her kids had their own children, and it would be her turn to stop working to take care of them.

William Jones, a sheep farmer from the Brecon Beacons, had led a happy life, until his wife, Sarah, died young. It left him devastated and seemingly bent on self-destruction. His daughter, Becky, tried to help, but even she was losing patience with her father. One evening, he is certain that he has died and been put out of his misery, but it was not to be. He recovered. However, his life was never to be the same again. He had discovered Annwn, where his wife lived, and his newly found vitality changed his life and that of all those with whom he came into contact.

What happens when a young man from a small town in Gwynedd has to spend six weeks in Manchester for a course of radiotherapy? This novel portrays life through the eyes of patient number 24609-3740. Winner of the Daniel Owen Prize at the 2016 National Eisteddfod.