Filth (novel) of football hooligans committed in "Marabou Stork Nightmares". "Ghostie" Gorman – Ghostie was among the rapists mentioned above in "Marabou Stork Nightmares". In "Filth" Bruce kills Gorman by biting out his tongue, causing him to reel backwards and fall out of a two-story window, where he suffers fatal head injuries. Francis Begbie – Begbie was a main character in "Trainspotting", its prequel "Skagboys" and sequel "Porno". He is briefly mentioned a few times in "Filth", associated with Lexo as running a second-hand furniture store in Leith. Mention of the business Begbie and Lexo are in is also made in "Marabou
John Irving the 1981 O. Henry Prize Stories collection. In 1985, Irving published "The Cider House Rules". An epic set in a Maine orphanage, the novel's central topic is abortion. Many drew parallels between the novel and Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" (1838). Irving's next novel was "A Prayer for Owen Meany" (1989), another New England family epic about religion set in a New England boarding school and in Toronto, Ontario. The novel was influenced by "The Tin Drum" (1959) by Günter Grass, and the plot contains further allusions to "The Scarlet Letter" (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the works of Dickens. In