The Night Listener

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.

ISBN 0552142409   Pages 368 ISBN13 9780552142403 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 244 Publisher Transworld Publishers Ltd   Published in London Imprint Black Swan   Previous ISBN 9780552773546 Format Paperback   Height (mm) 200 Publication date 01 Oct 2001   Width (mm) 131 DEWEY 813.54   Spine width (mm) 25 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level General

'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

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