Skipping Christmas: A Novel

John Grisham

Mar 2010 · Sold by Anchor

About this ebook

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this classic tale for modern times, beloved storyteller John Grisham offers a hilarious look at the chaos and frenzy that have become part of our holiday tradition.

The inspiration for the film Christmas with the Kranks, starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis

Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded malls, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. That’s just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just this once, they’ll skip the holiday altogether.

Theirs will be the only house on Hemlock Street without a rooftop Frosty, they won’t be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash, they aren’t even going to have a tree. They won’t need one, because come December 25 they’re setting sail on a Caribbean cruise. But as this weary couple is about to discover, skipping Christmas brings enormous consequences—and isn’t half as easy as they’d imagined.

Ratings and reviews

For Luther, skipping Christmas was an all or nothing proposition. With an eye on the bottom line, he elected for zero participation in all of their usual traditions. Adult conversations were side-stepped which opened them up to bad behavior by friends and neighbors due to unmet expectations. The Kranks essentially become prisoners in their own home in the days leading up to their vacation. Predictably, calamity strikes and hilarity follows. This was a quick and fun read that I highly recommend.

Believe it or not, my family actually listen to the audiobook every year while putting up the Christmas tree!

Nice casual read. Funny and entertaining. Nice to see Grisham stepping out of his lawyer element.

About the author

John Grisham is the author of numerous #1 bestsellers, including The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Innocent Man, The Whistler, The Boys from Biloxi, and many more. His books have been translated into nearly fifty languages. Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system. He lives on a farm in central Virginia.