Setting Free the Bears

This 'sensual, moving, truly remarkable novel' (Time) was written between 1965 and 1967. It concerns a plot to release all the animals from the Vienna Zoo. 'Imagine a mixture of Till Eulenspiegel and Ken Kesey and you've got the range of the merry pranksters who hot-rod through Mr Irving's book, tossing flowers, stealing salt-shakers, and planning the biggest caper of their young lives' (New York Times).

Essential reading for all John Irving fans, here is a mouth-watering foretaste of 'The Pension Grillparzer' in The World According to Garp and to the Berry Family's journey to Vienna in The Hotel New Hampshire.


Genre: Literary Fiction