{"product_id":"john-irving-queen-esther-2025-hardback","title":"John Irving: Queen Esther [2025] hardback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAfter forty years, John Irving returns to the world of his bestselling classic novel and Academy Award-winning \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Cider House Rules\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e, revisiting the orphanage in St. Cloud's, Maine, where Dr Wilbur Larch takes in Esther, a Viennese-born Jew whose life is shaped by anti-Semitism.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEsther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board a ship from Bremerhaven to Portland, Maine, and anti-Semites murder her mother in Portland. In the orphanage at St. Cloud's, it's clear to Dr Larch, the physician and director of the orphanage, that the abandoned child not only knows she's Jewish, but she's familiar with the biblical Queen Esther she was named for. Dr Larch knows it won't be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; he doubts he'll find any family to adopt her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Esther is fourteen, soon to become a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic family with a history of providing for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren't Jewish, but they detest anti-Semitism and similar prejudice. Esther's gratitude to the Winslows is unending. As she retraces her steps to her birth city, Esther keeps loving and protecting the Winslows - even in Vienna.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe final chapter of this historical novel is set in Jerusalem in 1981, when Esther is seventy-six.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Irving, John","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":53803450564947,"sku":"9781471179129","price":31.2,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/irving-john-john-irving-queen-esther-2025-hardback-9781471179129-1239505100.jpg?v=1779303818","url":"https:\/\/chaptersbookstore.com\/products\/john-irving-queen-esther-2025-hardback","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}