The Fourth Hand - Tapa dura

Irving's latest novel kicks off with an extraordinary incident. Sent to cover a colourful "human interest" story in a circus in Gujarat, its protagonist - a New York TV journalist - becomes the story himself when he is mauled by a lion which takes his hand off at the wrist. The whole grisly thing is caught on camera and shown around the world. But that's not all. A viewer in Wisconsin is moved to "donate" her husband's hand as a replacement, in some pioneering surgery, The only problem being that her husband is still very much alive and well... Irving's book mixes satire, black comedy, sexual picaresque (the journalist in question is an inveterate womaniser) with something else again. The mysterious painkiller which he is given in India opens unexpected vistas in the mind of the unfortunate main character. It's an inventive, funny, sexy book which also gets serious about love, loss and fate.

While reporting from India, a journalist has his left hand eaten by a lion; millions of TV viewers witness it. In Boston a surgeon awaits the opportunity to perform the nation's first hand transplant, and a woman in Wisonsin wants to give the journalist her husband's hand - but he is still alive.