John Irving's 'Queen Esther' returns readers to setting of 'The Cider Home Guidelines'

NEW YORK (AP) — In John Irving’s subsequent e book, the writer is returning to St. Cloud’s, Maine, and to the orphanage made well-known in his acclaimed “The Cider House Rules.”

Simon & Schuster introduced Thursday that Irving’s “Queen Esther” shall be printed Nov. 4. His novel will deliver again Dr. Wilbur Larch from “The Cider House Rules,” however in any other case includes a new set of characters. In keeping with Simon & Schuster, “Queen Esther” will span a lot of the twentieth century because it follows the lifetime of Esther Nacht, a Viennese Jew born in 1905, deserted at age 4 and brought in as a teen by a New England household.

Irving ends the story in Jerusalem, in 1981.

“The construction of this novel long predates the events of Oct. 7, and everything that’s happened in Israel since those terrorist attacks and the hostage-taking,” Irving said in a statement. “With hindsight, it’s easy to say that what I saw and heard in Israel in the early 1980s serves as a precursor to what has developed since that time, but this is what historical fiction is for.”

Irving, 82, can be recognized for such acclaimed works as “The Hotel New Hampshire,” “The World According to Garp” and “A Prayer for Owen Meany.” He printed “The Cider House Rules” in 1985 and gained an Oscar for writing the screenplay for the 1999 film adaptation. Michael Caine, who performed Dr. Larch, acquired an Oscar for finest supporting actor.

“One of many deepest pleasures of studying John Irving comes from discovering the turns in his story alongside along with his characters, so I’ll give away no plot particulars, apart from to say this: In ‘Queen Esther,’ John Irving actually takes readers the place he’s by no means taken them earlier than,” Irving’s editor, Simon and Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp, mentioned in a press release.

“The truth that John remains to be breaking new creative floor in his 80s and doing so with such audacious and impeccably crafted storytelling, is but one more reason why he is likely one of the world’s best writers.”