Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. Owen doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that in 1953 foul is both extraordinary and terrifying. At moments a comic, self-deluded victim, but in the end the principal, tragic actor in a divine plan, Owen Meany is the most heartbreaking hero John Irving has yet created.

"I have chosen this book is because of the strength of the character in the book and his voice. Owen Meany is a dwarfish boy who has a strange voice and accidentally kills his best friend's mother. It is a tragedy based on depths of friendship, destiny and beliefs around faith." - Tavinder New

Barking and Dagenham nomination.