The Listeners
A Novel
-
-
4.0 • 82 Ratings
-
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER· An Oprah Daily Best Summer Read of 2025 · A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of June
“A wonderfully observed—actually, flat-out wonderful—historical novel.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Richly imagined . . . Stiefvater’s prose is as pungent as the sweetwater, with a snap that suggests the whimsy of a veteran storyteller.” —The New York Times
#1 New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater dazzles in this mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril.
January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.
Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.
Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.
June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Maggie Stiefvater’s first novel for adults is a unique blend of WWII history, fiction, and magic. June Hudson is used to catering to unusual requests as the general manager of the Avallon Hotel & Spa, a West Virginia luxury resort built over mystical mineral springs. But she never expected that the State Department and the FBI would commandeer the place to host 300 detained Axis diplomats and their families in the early winter of 1942. Somehow, she must keep the hotel running at its expected level of service while managing the tension among the staff, angry locals, government forces, and their enemy “guests.” The Avallon is based on the Greenbrier, a West Virginia hotel that was one of several “hosting” Axis dignitaries. But this is no spy thriller; rather, it’s a character-driven piece that delves deeply into the lives of a colorful mix of people all disrupted by war. June, a mountain woman who’s risen from orphaned child to maid to hotel manager, and her love interest, Tucker, a former coal miner turned FBI agent who can’t seem to leave his past behind, are endearing and relatable, and The Listeners is a quirky delight.
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.
Customer Reviews
Not As Good As Anticipated
A slog to read through, disjointed, and magical realism…. In other words not good. DNF.
The Listeners
Flowery immature writing that rambles without purpose.