Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book

Hot Search

The Fourth Hand

john irving

... Show More
While reporting a story from India, a New York television journalist has his left hand eaten by a lion; millions of TV viewers witness the accident. In Boston, a renowned hand surgeon awaits the opportunity to perform the nation’s first hand transplant; meanwhile, in the distracting aftermath of an acrimonious divorce, the surgeon is seduced by his housekeeper. A married woman in Wisconsin wants to give the one-handed reporter her husband’s left hand – that is, after her husband dies. But the husband is alive, relatively young, and healthy.

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 3,2001
Places
new york city new york, massachusetts, wisconsin, boston massachusetts, 

This edition

Format
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
April 29, 2003 by Seal
ISBN
9780345463159
ASIN
0345463153
Language
English

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for john irving

john irving

... Show More
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.

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
32(32%)
4 stars
32(32%)
3 stars
36(36%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Ochinchinfactory
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
It's no secret that John Irving is one of my favorite authors. This is a tender love story between two very different people and the unusual circumstances that brought them together. Irving's humor shines through. I love this book.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
qrdel
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
Not one of his best books. I felt that he seemed to lose the interesting off the wall character that the book began with, in the second half. Almost like he ran out of interest in the characters and just finished the story off. It it unusual for his characters to be introduced and then not developed further and left up in the air at the end.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
vinaruoh
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
Really enjoyed this book. Irving’s way of answering hypotheticals through his writing is so interesting to me. “What would happen if an organ (or in this case hand) donor’s family demanded visitation after donation?” I won’t spoil, but I did love this story of love, loss, and redemption.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
cup0tea
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
The premise of this novel is fantastic. The novel itself isn't. A painful thing to say, because John Irving is usually excellent.

While the writing is very good, the novel never lives up to the uniqueness of its concept. Instead, Irving populates this dark comedy with characters that are clichéd characterizations instead of characters themselves. I either hated them or could care less about them. Not one person in this novel possessed anything approaching dimensionality.

I'm so very glad that my time with this book is over.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
TotoSolamente
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
It pains me, LITERALLY PAINS ME, to give a John Irving novel anything less than 4 stars. He is among my favorite living authors, and I typically wholeheartedly enjoy the stories he tells and the vivid characters he creates. But this one... well, it just fell flat for me. I could not relate to or care about any of the characters, the storyline was rather blah, and while I truly truly love him, Irving's writing STYLE and "voice" aren't visual music for me the way Nicole Krauss or Marianne Wiggins are so that couldn't save this book either. Put all that together, and I have to say that the book was just okay. Honestly, if it was written by someone other than J.I., I probably would have given it 3 stars, but John, I hold you to a higher standard.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Professional2341
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
Jak na Irvinga bardzo słabo. Byłaby to nawet najsłabsza z przeczytanych do tej pory przeze mnie książek tego pisarza, gdyby nie pewien zbiór opowiadań, który wypadł jeszcze gorzej. Jednak ogólnie nie jest tragicznie - całkiem nieźle się to czytało, głównie ze względu na niewątpliwy talent autora do ciekawego pisania o niczym i nieograniczoną pomysłowość w tworzeniu groteskowo-śmieszno-smutnych postaci i sytuacji. Objętościowo nieimponująca w porównaniu do "średniej autorskiej", i co za tym idzie, powoli zaczynam myśleć, że Irving jest przeciwieństwem twórców, którzy są mistrzami krótkich form, za to zupełnie nie radzą sobie z długimi. On chyba potrzebuje minimum pół tysiąca stron, żeby porządnie rozwinąć skrzydła.
0 0 Reply
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.