Product Description

Gabriel Noone is a writer whose late night radio stories have brought him into the homes of millions. Noone is in the midst of a painful separation from his lover of ten years, when a publisher sends him proofs of a remarkable book: the memoir of a sickly thirteen-year-old boy who suffered horrific sexual abuse at the hands of his parents. Now living with his adoptive mother, Donna, Pete Lomax is not only a brave and gifted diarist but a devoted listener of Noone's show. When Noone phones the boy to offer encouragement, it soon becomes clear that Pete sees in this heartsick, middle-aged storyteller the loving father he's always wanted. Thus begins an extraordinary friendship that grows deeper only as the boy's health deteriorates, freeing Noone to unlock his innermost feelings. Then, out of the blue, troubling new questions arise, exploding Noone's comfortable assumptions and causing his ordered existence to spin wildly out of control. As he walks a vertiginous line between truth and illusion, he is finally forced to confront all his relationships - familial, romantic and erotic. As complex and hypnotically engrossing as the best of mysteries, "The Night Listener" is an astonishing tour de force that moves and challenges Maupin's readers as never before.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #143696 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Famed for his newspaper-column Tales of the City saga, Armistead Maupin has made the transition to fully fledged novelist with panache. Maintaining the wit and conversational duelling of the Tales--indeed, sharp-eyed fans will find odd intrusions from the past here--Maupin's The Night Listener is a gripping novel, brilliantly plotted and ultimately extremely moving, exploring "the chance to feel love without boundaries".

When yet another book manuscript drops onto Gabriel Noone's doormat craving his approval, the beloved late-night radio storyteller is sceptical--but this one is different. It's The Blacking Factory, the autobiographical tale of Pete Lomax, a child abused and sold for sex by his parents, who has survived, thanks to his adoptive mother, psychologist Donna. Flattered that this young boy is an inveterate night listener of his shows, Gabriel contacts Pete, and in time their telephone relationship blooms into something approaching father and son--until Gabriel begins to have doubts about who Pete is. At the same time, Gabriel's father falls ill and his life truly becomes "a loose confederation of uncertainties".

Perhaps this new emotional pull isn't altogether unsurprising beause like many others of his generation of gay writers--Edmund White, Andrew Holleran, Felice Picano--Maupin is now trading more explicitly in the raw materials of his own life. Gabriel Noone shares much with Armistead Maupin--a writer, whose fame is based on a popular form, raised in South Carolina, based in San Francisco, with a lover who leaves him when it becomes clear he's not about to die, and a same-named and difficult father. But Maupin has always been more cagey than his peers about revealing too much of himself--Noone, like his creator, is "a fabulist by trade", overly given to embroidering his stories, or "jewelling the elephant" as he puts it. And for all it reveals about Maupin the man, in its final pages The Night Listener protects its author's privacy--refusing to distinguish between fact and fiction, and refusing to allow that distinction to become important. --Alan Stewart

Review
'Cleverly constructed and completely compelling, The Night Listener marks the sure-footed return of one of America's most entertaining writers' Daily Mail; 'Maupin's writing is magnificent; this book has an 'unwritten' elegance equally suited to wit and pathos. It is like honeyed oak, as sturdy as it is warm' Daily Telegraph; 'His most mature, mellow and moving novel yet' Independent; 'A tremendous, hugely satisfying read' Time Out; 'Absorbing, sophisticated, funny and touching' Sunday Times

From the Back Cover
'His most mature, mellow and moveing novel yet' Independent

Gabriel Noone is a writer whose late-night radio stories have brought him into the homes of millions. Noone is in the midst of a painful separation from his lover of ten years, when a publisher sends him the memoir of a thirteen-year-old boy who suffered horrific abuse at the hands of his parents.

Pete Lomax is not only a brave and gifted diarist but a devoted listener to Noone's show. When Noone phones the boy to offer encouragement, it soon becomes clear that Pete sees in this heart-sick, middle-aged storyteller the loving father he's always wanted. Thus begins an extraordinary friendship that only grows deeper as the boy's health deteriorates.

Then, out of the blue, troubling new questions arise, exploding Noone's comfortable assumptions and causing his ordered existence to spin wildly out of control. As he walks the tightrope between truth and illusion, he is finally forced to confront all his relationships - familial, romantic and erotic.

'A mystery studded with elegant twists and turns' New York Times Book Review

'A tremendous, hugely satisfying read' Time Out

'Absorbing, sophisticated, funny and touching' The Sunday Times

Customer Reviews

Iron grip of a thriller, heart and tears of a romance
The Night Listener is one of the most unputdownable books ever - and that does not mean it is a thriller (although its hall-of-mirrors mystery structure brings that genre to mind) nor a will-they-marry romance (although many types of love - familial, pseudo-paternal, friendship and others - are skilfully and tenderly evoked); rather it is a unique combination of a devastatingly moving love story between two people who, it seems, may never meet, a memoir of a sad, dysfunctional family and a dark journey into one man's soul. And , my God, how can it be, but it is - it's also very funny. Humane to the point of breakdown, subtly structured to the point of screaming tension - it's the best this English graduate has read for years.

Morning, Noone and Night
How do you define love? How do you picture someone you have never met? And how are you able to believe so much when you understand so little? With "The Night Listner" questions are raised, personal inner most fears are realised and the people who are closest to you answer a question whilst raising dozens more. Maupin has, in this book, excelled. He helps us to feel on so many levels what the characters are experiencing. Hard hitting issues are well presented without the need to "glamourise". From page one you become hooked with his writing feeling almost musical in its descriptions. I can recount many emotions emerging as I read about Noone's rollercoaster ride, from actual tears and sorrow, through to laugh out loud moments. Maupin intertextual style of writing in this book does not become evident until the very final few pages, which makes it such an interesting read. High praise to Maupin. An extrordinary piece of literary prose.

Opening of a whole new world of books
I picked up the "Night Listener" in sheer frustration at not being able to find another book that I was interested in. But it was like finding a 20 pound note in your jeans pocket when your skint! I loved this book, the mystery, the emotions, his style of writing. I felt that through parts of the book, a bit of the author was seeping through on to the page. If you like happy endings....be prepared! I read this book four months ago and I still haven't reached any conclusions yet, but my feeling is, it has been left for me to make up my own ending. I don't know if this was his intent but I'm doing it anyway.
I have now read all of Armistead Maupins books, I will be forever grateful he became a writer, because he has given me hours of pleasure.