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1989 novel by John Irving

A Prayer for Owen Meany is the seventh novel by American writer John Irving. Published in 1989, it tells the story of John Wheelwright and his best friend Owen Meany growing up together in a small New Hampshire town during the 1950s and 1960s. According to John's narration, Owen is a remarkable boy in many ways; he believes himself to be God's instrument and sets out to fulfill the fate he has prophesied for himself. The novel is also an homage to Günter Grass's most famous novel, The Tin Drum. Grass was a great influence for John Irving, as well as a close friend. The main characters of both novels, Owen Meany and Oskar Matzerath, share the same initials as well as some other characteristics, and their stories show some parallels. Irving has confirmed the similarities. A Prayer for Owen Meany, however, follows an independent and separate plot.

The story is narrated by John Wheelwright, a former citizen of New Hampshire who has become a voluntary expatriate from the United States, having settled in Toronto and taken on Canadian citizenship. The story is narrated in two interwoven time frames. The first time frame is the perspective of John in the present day (1987). The second time frame is John's memories of the past: growing up in New Hampshire in the 1950s and 1960s alongside his best friend, Owen Meany.

John Irving uses a unique style when writing A Prayer for Owen Meany. The author and editor Debra Shostak noticed Irving's "repetitive plot", visible throughout several of his novels. Irving gave two possible explanations for this, writing about the "order" this brings to a plot, instead of it being "chaotic and corny". This repetition also serves to place emphasis on certain key events and ideas. Irving described his writing process by saying, "I have the last chapters in my mind before I see the first chapters I usually begin with endings, a sense of aftermath, of dust settling, of epilogue. I love plot, and how can you plot a novel if you don't know the ending first?"

Following motifs of faith, religion, war and friendship, John Irving discussed the backstory of A Prayer for Owen Meany before an assembly of drama students at Yale University. Morrow released an e book edition on March 13, 2012.

A Prayer for Owen Meany has been both widely praised and criticized. Alfred Kazin described John Wheelwright as a "conscious and unapologetic wimp" and referred to Owen Meany as a "little squirt". However, J. Denny Weaver commented on Owen's "heroic death", and remarked on the book's continuing theme that life is miraculous. Overall, critics found the novel to be a different but successful addition to Irving's works. The book was on the New York Times Bestseller List. According to publisher Simon & Schuster, A Prayer for Owen Meany is Irving's "all time bestselling novel, in every language". Novelist Frederick Buechner, a former teacher of Irving at the Phillips Exeter Academy whom Irving quoted in an epigraph to A Prayer for Owen Meany, called it simply "a really good book".

In 1997, Book It Repertory Theatre of Seattle, created a narrative style theatrical adaptation of the novel's fourth chapter, "The Little Lord Jesus". The adaptation is titled "Owen Meany's Christmas Pageant" and has been produced seven times. The 1998 feature length film Simon Birch, written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, was loosely based on the novel. The film starred Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazzello, Ashley Judd, Oliver Platt and Jim Carrey. It omitted much of the latter half of the novel and altered the ending. The movie does not share the same title as the book or the character names at Irving's request; he felt that it would "mislead the novel's readers to see a film of that same title which was so different from the book." In 2002, the Royal National Theatre staged Simon Bent's adaptation A Prayer for Owen Meany: On Faith starring Aidan McArdle as the title character and Richard Hope as John Wheelwright. In 2009, the BBC aired Linda Marshall Griffiths' adaptation of A Prayer for Owen Meany starring Henry Goodman, Toby Jones, Charlotte Emmerson and Max Baldry as a five part Afternoon Play on BBC Radio Four. In 2009, Audible. com produced an audio version of A Prayer for Owen Meany, narrated by Joe Barrett, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks. There have also been numerous theatrical adaptations, including Yale University's Dramatic Association's Freshman Show.

California punk rock band Lagwagon's song "Owen Meaney" from their 1998 album Let's Talk About Feelings is based on the book. The band Jimmy Eat World based the song "Goodbye Sky Harbor" from their 1999 album Clarity on the book. In the movie Milk Money, the school is named Owen Meany Jr. High School. Former Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson has passed out this book to his team in the past as part of his ritual of assigning readings to players. Book is featured on the TV show "Tacoma FD".