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The Fourth Hand
The Fourth Hand
Dec 2, 2025 9:33 PM

Author:John Irving

The Fourth Hand

'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.'

While 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. 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...

Reviews

A rich and deeply moving tale... Vintage Irving

—— Washington Post

A beguiling tale of love and redemption

—— Time Out

Peerless... Writing without a wasted second

—— Guardian

Articulate, clever, quirky, more than a touch profound and very funny

—— Mirror

Sharp and very, very funny, this is another of Irving's fiercely original meditations of life's inherent strangeness

—— Uncut

Irving has a literary style similar to a snowball effect: with each novel he creates symbols and develops themes to accompany those he has already accumulated. Grief, loss, abortion, amputation, sex, children, America's political history and the power of foresight are all explored here

—— Observer

Richly entertaining reading: part satire, part farce... there's no better - or funnier - reintroduction to the least known truly great American author

—— FHM

A coruscating comedy of sexual manners. In the margins of a hard-hitting satire on the modern media, Irving has produced some of the funniest bedroom scenes of recent years

—— Sunday Telegraph

If you are looking for something light and provocative for the beach this is a great little number

—— Irish Independent

an engaging, warm-hearted novel'

—— Scotland on Sunday

This clever and very funny twist on the traditional zombie novel is exceedingly well executed . . . Great stuff for horror and fantasy fans

—— BOOKLIST(Starred Review)

Logan has a flair for unique description . . . an impressive start for an author who’s going places

—— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Its unhinged, imaginative wit and respect for the genre deserve the attention of any self-respecting fan

—— FANGORIA

Apocalypse Cow treads that rare path between horrific and hilarious, which makes for a very fun read indeed. Give it a go.

—— CHRISTOPHER MOORE, author of Lamb, Fool, and A Dirty Job

Logan manages to find a great balance between the dark and disturbing and the quirky and hilarious, all the while intermingling plotlines like a seasoned pro

—— RUE MORGUE

Taylor’s love and understanding of Victorian melodrama is put to good use in this tangibly detailed and deliciously written pastiche centred on an Epsom Derby swindle

—— Sunday Telegraph

This is a fictional world in which daughters are ready to bump off their fathers, husbands to exploit their wives, and everyone is happy to chance their assets on the wheel of fortune. It’s a novel that will keep you gripped until the very last furlong

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent

It is a detective story as gripping as the Victorian novels that inspired it, and is written with narrative flair and a terrific sense of fun

—— Robert Douglas-Fairhurst , Daily Telegraph

Derby Day will be hard to put down... As ever with Taylor, literary complexities lurk under the smooth surface of a stylish page-turner

—— Conde Nast Traveller
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