"The Night Listener"
by Armistead Maupin

"I write to be read aloud. I never finish a paragraph without being certain that it can tumble effortlessly from my own lips. I came from the Southern tradition of storytelling, and I believe that reading should be like an exhilarating run through the woods, with no ill-placed logs to trip you up." -- Armistead Maupin

In September 2000 Salon presented "The Night Listener" Spoken Word Serial: The entire text of the novel by Armistead Maupin, read by the author. Sponsored by Amazon.com.

Armistead Maupin has amassed a worldwide following with his six bestselling "Tales of the City" novels. Few authors in America write with such unerring insight and honesty in mapping the territory of the human heart. In his new novel, "The Night Listener," Maupin has given us his most ambitious and daringly imaginative work. As complex and hypnotically engrossing as the best of mysteries, it will move and challenge his readers as never before.

In "The Night Listener," Gabriel Noone's cult-hit radio show "Noone @ Night" has brought him into the homes of millions. Noone is in the midst of a painful separation from his longtime lover when a publisher sends him proofs of a remarkable book -- the memoir of an ailing 13-year-old boy who suffered horrific abuse at the hands of his parents.

Now living with his adoptive mother, Pete Lomax is not only a brave and gifted diarist but also 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 only grows deeper as the boy's health deteriorates, freeing Noone to unlock his innermost feelings.

Then, out of the blue, troubling 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's finally forced to confront all his relationships -- familial, romantic and erotic.

Listen to Episode 1 of "The Night Listener," read by Armistead Maupin.

Episode 1: Jewelling the Elephant
Download: MP3 [10.5 MB]
Stream: Real Media
Duration: 25:50	Click to buy

Order "The Night Listener" book or audiobook now.

Illustration by Zach Trenholm