John Irving grapples with fate and faith in his 13th novel Avenue of Mysteries

John Irving has used the wrestler’s toolkit to become one of the best-known novelists in America. His latest effort, Avenue of Mysteries, is a book about the strength of memory, the mystery of faith, the weariness of age and the caprice of fate.

He has spliced together two stories: the present-day trip of writer Juan Diego to the Philippines to carry out a favour to a lost friend, and Juan Diego’s dreams and memories of his childhood, living on the dumps of Oaxaca, Mexico, with a cast of characters that includes his sister, Lupe, who reads minds.

The story is different, but Irving is using many of the themes he has mined for more than 40 years.

“It’s what my voice as a writer is,” he says. “It’s pretty evident in most of my novels.”

Of his 13 novels, The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Cider House Rules and A Widow for One Year have topped The New York Times’ bestseller list. Five times, Hollywood has found his work to be worthwhile grist for the motion picture mill. He tried screenwriting and even won an Oscar for Cider House, but hated the experience, declaring that screenplays are like carpentry – all craft.

Irving, 73, sees himself as a 19th-century novelist, dedicated to plot, characters, narrative. He has griped for many years about modern writers who consciously construct wordplay that can be understood only by other writers. He writes in longhand, in lined notebooks – a practice that lets him work during his frequent travels (“I write well on aeroplanes and hotels”). He’s about 173cm tall, so he can stretch his legs even when he flies economy.