Queen Esther by John Irving
(Simon & Schuster)
November 4, 2025
IN HIS FIRST novel in over a decade, John Irving returns to characters from The Cider House Rules with a story that spans generations and centres on Rachel — known to those closest to her as “Queen Esther.” Raised in a Jewish orphanage and trained as an obstetrician, Rachel’s life unfolds against the backdrop of twentieth-century American upheaval, touching on themes of identity, survival, and chosen family. True to form, Irving weaves faith, fate, and fierce independence into a novel as sprawling as it is intimate. Alex Rose
