Poco imaginaban los Berry que un oso danzando encima de una motocicleta y su amo, Freud, judío y vienés, iban a ser el origen de toda una saga de hijos y hoteles. Gracias a ellos fundarán el primer Hotel New Hampshire en una ex escuela de señoritas del estado de Maine, donde Franny, la hija mayor, vivirá una experiencia terrible ; John, el narrador, empezará a levantar pesas ; Frank, el primogénito, insistirá en perpetuar la imagen de Patético, el perro, y todo ello mientras Egg balbucea y la pequeña Lilly se encierra en su cuarto para crecer y escribir. Pero las cosas no acaban de funcionar y Freud telegrafía desde Viena y ofrece otro hotel, con oso incluido. Allí irá toda la familia, o lo que de ésta queda, a convivir en el segundo hotel, entre terroristas y prostitutas, y nada sino una bomba -y Lilly saliendo de su habitación con la novela prometida- conseguirá que vuelvan a Estados Unidos y al tercer Hotel New Hampshire, al lugar donde todo había empezado.
JOHN IRVING was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. His first novel, Setting Free the Bears, was published in 1968, when he was twenty-six. He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, and coached wrestling until he was forty-seven. Mr. Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times—winning once, in 1980, for his novel The World According to Garp. He received an O. Henry Award in 1981 for his short story “Interior Space.” In 2000, Mr. Irving won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules. In 2013, he won a Lambda Literary Award for his novel In One Person. An international writer—his novels have been translated into more than thirty-five languages—John Irving lives in Toronto. His all-time best-selling novel, in every language, is A Prayer for Owen Meany. Avenue of Mysteries is his fourteenth novel.