The Listeners
'A beautiful love story, a fascinating glimpse into the horrors of history and a haunting tale of loyalty and courage' - Chris Whitaker
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
'A phenomenally immersive read' Claire Lombardo
'Brings its setting and its large ensemble of characters vividly to life' Sunday Times
'Funny and imaginative with real emotional heft' Irish Independent
READERS ARE SAYING...
'The Avallon and its staff of unique characters will stick with me for a long time' ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐
'Dark with history and light with love' ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐
'The atmospheric whimsy of The Grand Budapest Hotel and literary genius of All the Light We Cannot See'⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐
'I loved June, a strong woman who believed in what she did' ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐
'The writing brings an emotional magic' ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐
'Full of intrigue and heartbreak... this is a story of WWII America mostly unknown and forgotten' ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐
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The hotel was a hidden paradise. Until they went to war...
In 1942, June 'Hoss' Hudson runs the finest hotel in the Appalachian Mountains. The Avallon, owned by the wealthy Gilfoyle family, is a world away from the war in Europe. But when Edgar, the eldest son who June has loved since childhood, strikes a deal with the State Department, June finds herself playing host to three hundred foreign diplomats.
Nobody at the Avallon wants to serve caviar to the enemy. As tensions rise among staff and guests, dark alliances and unexpected desires begin to crack the hotel's polished veneer. Not least between June and Tucker Minnick, a government agent listening through the walls for secrets, whose watchful eyes both unsettle and attract her.
For June is guarding a secret of her own - one she has risked everything to keep.
*
'Mesmeric, original and stunning' Chris Whitaker
'Around every corner of this richly imagined world, we discover some new wonder' New York Times
'A marvel: strange, witty, moving, exuberant' Robert Macfarlane
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
It’s 1942. The United States has just entered World War II and a group of 300 Nazi diplomats enter the Avallon Hotel in West Virginia. The US State Department is keeping watch. The FBI are hunting for spies. But hotel manager, and local Appalachian girl, Joss Hudson must make every guest feel welcome.
Maggie Stiefvater is already well known for her young adult fiction and The Listeners is her first book for adults. The setting is both luxurious and wild. The characters border on eccentric, but the network of alliances they form and their very real desires ground them. The Listeners, like the water running through the spa hotel, is a powerful mix of the sweet and the strange. The current of magical realism doesn’t feel out of place in a world where real-life events have already altered millions of lives. During any war, love will still sit alongside horror and The Listeners shows both the light and the dark in the human heart.
This is an intriguing, moving book with an immersive setting. And the author’s note at the end of the novel is also worth reading, as it contains one final surprise for the reader.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The beguiling adult debut by YA novelist Stiefvater (Shiver) imbues a little-known chapter of WWII history with a touch of the supernatural. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. State Department requisitioned several luxury hotels as housing for captured enemy diplomats. At the fictional Avallon in West Virginia (modeled after the Greenbrier), the rich and powerful relax and take advantage of the local mineral water acclaimed for its healing properties. General manager June Hudson, who has risen in the ranks in part because of her ability to communicate with the mercurial and possibly sentient "sweetwater," is concerned by the arrival of FBI agent and fellow West Virginian Tucker Minnick, who's suspicious of the hotel's new guests. As tensions rise over the Avallon's hosting of Nazis, June and Tucker both face crises of career and conscience, and the fate of the hotel and the springs on which it depends hangs in the balance. With a light touch, Stiefvater populates the story with a rich and varied cast of characters, including a mysterious woman who hasn't left the hotel's fourth floor for decades, and she seamlessly threads sparkling magic into her well-researched historical narrative. This accomplished work should earn Stiefvater plenty of new fans.
