{"product_id":"the-fourth-hand","title":"The Fourth Hand","description":"\u003cp\u003e“Imagine a young man on his way to a less-than-thirty second event — the loss of his left hand, long before he reached middle age.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Fourth Hand asks an interesting question: “How can anyone identify a dream of the future?” The answer: “Destiny is not imaginable, except in dreams or to those in love.”\u003cbr\u003eWhile 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is how John Irving’s tenth novel begins; it seems, at first, to be a comedy, perhaps a satire, almost certainly a sexual farce. Yet, in the end, The Fourth Hand is as realistic and emotionally moving as any of Mr. Irving’s previous novels—including The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Widow for One Year—or his Oscar-winning screenplay of The Cider House Rules.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Fourth Hand is characteristic of John Irving’s seamless storytelling and further explores some of the author’s recurring themes—loss, grief, love as redemption. But this novel also breaks new ground; it offers a penetrating look at the power of second chances and the will to change.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vintage Canada","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44994374664392,"sku":"BKPB10104175","price":7.5,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0643\/2034\/0168\/files\/The_Fourth_Hand.jpg?v=1772667601","url":"https:\/\/theblossomingbookshop.com\/products\/the-fourth-hand","provider":"The Blossoming Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}