In her shriveled left hand, the old nun clutched the crucifix around her neck; making a fist, she held the crucified Christ against her beating heart. No one — least of all, Juan Diego, who was dead — heard her say, in Latin, “Sic transit gloria mundi.” (“Thus passes the glory of this world.”)
Not that anyone would have doubted such a venerable-looking nun, and she was right; not even Clark French, had he been there, would have uttered a qualifying word. Not every collision course comes as a surprise.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• Julia Arvin
• Martin Bell
• David Calicchio
• Nina Cochran
• Emily Copeland
• Nicole Dancel
• Rick Dancel
• Daiva Daugirdienė
• John DiBlasio
• Minnie Domingo
• Rodrigo Fresán
• Gail Godwin
• Dave Gould
• Ron Hansen
• Everett Irving
• Janet Irving
• Stephanie Irving
• Bronwen Jervis
• Karina Juárez
• Delia Louzán
• Mary Ellen Mark
• José Antonio Martínez
• Anna von Planta
• Benjamin Alire Sáenz
• Marty Schwartz
• Nick Spengler
• Jack Stapleton
• Abraham Verghese
• Ana Isabel Villaseñor
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOHN IRVING was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. His first novel, Setting Free the Bears, was published in 1968, when he was twenty-six. He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, and coached wrestling until he was forty-seven.
Mr. Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times — winning once, in 1980, for his novel The World According to Garp. He received an O. Henry Award in 1981 for his short story “Interior Space.” In 2000, Mr. Irving won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules. In 2013, he won a Lambda Literary Award for his novel In One Person.
An international writer — his novels have been translated into more than thirty-five languages — John Irving lives in Toronto. His all-time bestselling novel, in every language, is A Prayer for Owen Meany.
Avenue of Mysteries is his fourteenth novel.