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.