Setting Free the Bears
A Novel
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3.6 • 14 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
“Truly remarkable . . . encompasses the longings and agonies of youth . . . a complex and moving novel.”—Time
“Astonishing . . . a writer of uncommon imaginative power. Whatever [John Irving] writes, it will be worth reading.”—Saturday Review
It is 1967. Two Viennese university students, Siggy and Hannes, roam the Austrian countryside on their motorcycles—on a quest: to liberate the bears of the Vienna Zoo. But their good intentions have both comic and gruesome consequences in this first novel from John Irving, already a master storyteller at twenty-five years old.
“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.”—The New York Times
Customer Reviews
my favorite
i have read all of john irving’s novels except “until i find you” and “the fourth hand” which i will start next week on vacation— “setting free the bears” has always been my favorite as when i read the novel in the mid-eighties i was setting free my own bears and emotionally and psychologically as unstable as siggy and hannes— it has been enjoyable reading it once again nearly 40 years later and reevaluating every twist and turn in the roads that lead to vienna— and the vienna boys choir of which one stayed with us when i was a younger boy, but that is another story— the movie should still be made!