The Night Listener : A Novel

twisted it back into fiction. Tony Maupin and I have just learned what it means to be brothers, which fills me with joy. Tim McIntosh makes me laugh and listens beautifully. Cheryl Maupin has my admiration and affection more than ever. Don Bachardy continues to inspire me by his remarkable self-discipline. David Hockney and Barry Humphries help me to remember to play while I’m working. My friends Stephen McCauley, David Sheff, Karen Barbour, Darryl Vance, Louise Vance, Peggy Knickerbocker, Anne Lamott, Thomas Gibson, Cristina Gibson, Buddy Rhodes, Susan Andrews, Jake Heggie, Steven Lippman, and Davia Nelson read an early draft of this novel and offered invaluable insight and support. Maggie Hamilton brought me light when I needed it. Nic-olas Sheff makes me dote like an old gay godfather. Gary Lebow felt like family far sooner than I expected. Nick Hongola is my swell new friend. David Wong has the gentlest of hearts. Barry Jones, Liz McKereghan, and Lawrence Jenkins remind me to live in my body.
    Ben Shaw, Todd Hargis, and Jose Landes have brought me all the comforts of home. Alan Poul’s dedication and good taste have kept Tales of the City on television. The incandescent Laura Linney is both the woman I would want and the woman I would want to be.
    Olympia Dukakis has always been a goddess-send. Terry Anderson, who keeps our cottage industry on course, gave me his unequivocal blessing, then cajoled, encouraged, and tolerated me until this novel was finished. When all is said and done, he’s still the one.
    AM
    San Francisco
     
    About the Author

    ARMISTEAD MAUPIN is the author of Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, Sure of You , and Maybe the Moon . Film versions of Tales of the City, More Tales of the City , and Further Tales of the City have been broadcast to great acclaim on PBS and Showtime. He lives in San Francisco.
    Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
     
    Praise for

    The Night Listener
    —A New York Times Notable Book
    “After an eight-year wait, Armistead Maupin rewards his fans and accomplishes the unthinkable: He surpasses the excellence of his Tales of the City series. Filled with twists and turns that rival The Sixth Sense and The Crying Game , Maupin’s new novel is a deceptively simple page-turner…. Maupin presents his tale with such polished, effortless elegance that his talent can be underestimated because the sweat behind it is invisible.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
    “With rare authority, humor, and stunning grace, Maupin explores the risks and consolations of intimacy while illuminating the mysteries of the storytelling impulse.”
    —Chicago Tribune
    “Heartbreaking, affirming, and hilarious…absolute, unadulterated, page-turning pleasure.”
    —Atlanta Journal-Constitution
    “An excellent psychological drama…. The Night Listener asks why we tell stories, and to whom, and why we listen to them.”
    —The Guardian (London)
    “A roller coaster…. A meticulously plotted midlife coming-of-age novel…storytelling at its best.”
    —Houston Chronicle
    “A powerful and moving suspense story, and an examination of the power of belief, of a writer’s ability to induce it in his readers…. A rich and intriguing book about the obligations and liberations of dependency, and the lies we tell ourselves in the name of love.” —The Observer (London)
    “Maupin’s best book to date…. [ The Night Listener ] contains complex characterizations and is meticulously constructed…so much so that when you reach the end you want to go back and read it all over again to see whether you can spot the clues scattered on the way.” —Time Out
     
    Also by Armistead Maupin
    Novels
    Tales of the City
    More Tales of the City
    Further Tales of the City
    Babycakes
    Significant Others
    Sure of You
    Maybe the Moon
    Collections

Credits
    Cover design by Chip Kidd
    Author photograph © 2000 by Annie Leibovitz
     
    Copyright
    This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
    Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
    THE NIGHT LISTENER. Copyright © 2006 by Armistead Maupin. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
    By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the