The Last Chairlift

First published in the United States by Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2022

First published in Great Britain by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2022

Copyright © Garp Enterprises, Ltd, 2022

In essay form, a small portion of the text herein referencing Moby-Dick was previously published in the summer 2013 issue of Brick.

Excerpts from My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett are reprinted from the work originally published by Random House, New York, in 1948. Additional permissions granted by Swift Press.

SCRIBNER and design are registered trademarks of The Gale Group, Inc., used under licence by Simon & Schuster Inc.

The right of John Irving to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4711-7908-2

eBook ISBN: 978-1-4711-7910-5

Audio ISBN: 978-1-4711-9207-4

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Interior design by Carly Loman

Jacket illustration by Alan Dingman