A Prayer for Owen Meany
American novelist, born 1942.
A Prayer for Owen Meany is a 1989 novel by John Irving.
On 3 of the 18 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- John Irving
- First published
- 1989
- Length
- 636 pages (UK paperback)
- Genre
- Literary fiction, Coming of age, Religion and faith, War and conflict
Is A Prayer for Owen Meany worth reading?
3 of the 18 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian) and The Big Read top 100 (BBC).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 37 | See the list |
| The Big Read top 100 (BBC, 2003) | No. 28 | See the list |
| The Great American Read (PBS, 2018) | Listed | See the list |
Best edition of A Prayer for Owen Meany
The edition we link to is the Black Swan paperback (1990), 636 pages.
- Publisher
- Black Swan (paperback, 1990)
- Pages
- 636
- ISBN
- 9780552993692
How critics, prizes and readers rate A Prayer for Owen Meany
Readers rate it most highly: it earned 52% of the points available on readers' and booksellers' lists, against 0% on critics' lists and 0% on prize lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like A Prayer for Owen Meany
If you liked A Prayer for Owen Meany, try To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye or My Brilliant Friend.
