<p><b>''A work of genius'' <i>Independent</i></b><br><br><b>''Marvellously funny . . . What better entertainment is there than a serious book which makes you laugh?'' <i>Spectator</i></b><br><br><br><b><i>''If you care about something you have to protect it. If you''re lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.''</i></b><br><br>Summer, 1953. In the small town of Gravesend, New Hampshire, eleven-year-old John Wheelwright and his best friend Owen Meany are playing in a Little League baseball game. When Owen hits a foul ball which kills John''s mother, their lives are changed in an instant.<br><br>It is dismissed as a tragic accident but Owen disagrees. He believes that he is God''s instrument, put on Earth for a higher purpose. And as the boys come into adulthood to the background of the Vietnam War, a series of remarkable events show that perhaps Owen''s divine plan was not imagined after all.<br><br>Discover the funny yet poignant classic by t