Setting Free the Bears: A Novel

Authors: Irving, John
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
BISAC/Subject: FIC014000, FIC016000, FIC019000
ISBN: 9781984800084, Related ISBNs: 0345367413, 0345417984, 0736603816, 1984800086, 9780345367419
Classification: Non-Fiction
Number of pages: 304,
Audience: General/trade
Synopsis: “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
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