Synopses & Reviews
Award-winning author Michael Malone's
The Last Noel is a beautiful gift to American fiction. In a deeply touching tale,
The Last Noel captures the exuberance and poignance of a lasting friendship between a man and a woman from very different backgrounds. Noni Tilden and Kaye King grow up and grow close as their lives come dramatically together through four decades of tumultuous change in a small southern town.
The story begins in 1963 when Kaye first meets Noni on the eve of their seventh birthdays. On that Christmas Eve, Kaye climbs through her bedroom window to invite her to come sledding with him in a rare southern snowfall. Over the next thirty years on twelve days of Christmas, they meet to share the passion, the sacrifice and the romance of a lifetime. At once exquisitely written and tearfully joyful, The Last Noel is one of the great love stories of our time.
Review
"Malone's latest novel reaffirms his brilliance in crafting carefully plotted fiction with a literary burnish, most often through Southern manners and intrigue." Denver Post
Review
"A quietly moving tale of people formed and trapped by history and locale, told with an authentic taste for the region." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Malone writes with such quiet authority and clear understanding of the world his characters inhabit that the story strikes deep emotional chords." Washington Post Book World
Review
"The story does pick up some momentum about two-thirds of the way through, and readers who stay the course will be rewarded with a sentimental, fitfully affecting drama of sibling feuds and divorces, loss and reconciliation." Publishers Weekly
Review
"[A] warm, engaging love story....The plotline can sometimes feel soap opera-like...but Malone is such a fine writer that at every turn he provides insightful glimpses into an exceptionally appealing cast of characters." Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist
Synopsis
Captures the tumult and exuberance of a lasting friendship on twelve different days of Christmas over the years.
About the Author
Michael Malone is the author of 11 novels, one collection of short stories, and two works of nonfiction. Educated at Carolina and at Harvard, he has taught at Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and Swarthmore. Among his prizes are the Edgar, the O. Henry, the Writers Guild Award, and the Emmy. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife, Maureen Quilligan, chair of the English department at Duke University.