The Fourth Hand

The Water-Method Man

Setting Free the Bears

SCREENPLAYS

The Cider House Rules

Copyright

RANDOM HOUSE

NEW YORK

The Fourth Hand is a work of fiction. Other than those well-known individuals and news events referred to for purposes incidental to the plot, all names, places, characters, and events are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. To the extent that real persons and reported events are mentioned in the novel, the author has included such references without the knowledge or cooperation of the individuals involved.

Copyright © 2001 by Garp Enterprises, Ltd.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York.

RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Irving, John

The fourth hand: a novel/John Irving.

p. cm.

eISBN 1-58836-017-2

_v1.0

1. Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc.—Fiction. 2. Donation of organs, tissues, etc.—Fiction. 3. Television journalists—Fiction. 4. Transplant surgeons—Fiction. 5. Hand—Surgery—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3559.R8 F68 2001b 813'.54—dc21 2001018155

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Book design by Barbara M. Bachman