Recommend books Queen Esther: A Novel

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Queen Esther: A Novel

★★★

7.5

John Irving・・Ended

Updated: November 4, 2025

Content length: 432 pages

language: English

Source: amazon

7.5

Score

5★

8%

4★

25%

3★

33%

2★

8%

1★

25%

Synopsis

After forty years, John Irving returns to the world of his bestselling classic novel and Academy Award–winning film, The Cider House Rules, 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. Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won’t be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won’t find any family who’ll adopt her. When Esther is fourteen, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic New England family with a history of providing foster care for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren’t Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther’s gratitude for the Winslows is unending; even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows. In the final chapter, set in Jerusalem in 1981, Esther Nacht is seventy-six. John Irving’s sixteenth novel is a testament to his enduring ability to weave complex characters and intricate narratives that challenge and captivate. Queen Esther is not just a story of survival but a profound exploration of identity, belonging, and the enduring impact of history on our personal lives showcasing why Irving remains one of the world’s most beloved, provocative, and entertaining authors—a storyteller of our time and for all time.

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📖 Must-Read — Reasons to Dive In

John Irving’s sixteenth novel returns to St. Cloud’s, Maine—the world of The Cider House Rules—to follow Esther Nacht, a Jewish orphan born in 1905 Vienna whose life is shaped by antisemitism and adoption, and whose journey arcs all the way to Jerusalem in 1981. It’s classic Irving: big-hearted, morally thorny, and deeply humane—now refracted through a twentieth-century odyssey about identity, belonging, and the search for home, with Dr. Wilbur Larch stepping back onstage.