The Listeners: A Novel
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.
“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.
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Community Reviews
Atmospheric, Symbolic, and Uneven but Compelling
Maggie Stiefvater’s The Listeners is a strange, slow-burn novel that lingers more in atmosphere than in action. At the heart of it is June, the formidable GM of the Avallon Hotel, caught between duty to the hotel, the uncanny sweet water beneath it, and her own tangled desires. The sweet water is the book’s most fascinating symbol — a force that both takes and gives, shaping the fates of everyone in its sphere of influence.
The political backdrop adds weight: Axis diplomats detained at the hotel, espionage games, and the quiet but urgent rescue of Hannelore Wolfe, a neurodivergent diplomat’s daughter facing an uncertain (and likely tragic) future in Nazi Germany. These threads are deftly handled, and June’s protectiveness toward both Hannelore and the sweet water becomes the emotional spine of the book.
Where the novel falters is in pacing and romance. Much of the middle feels sedate, and the tension between June and Agent Minnick leans too heavily on “magnetic attraction” before it’s given depth. Still, their eventual relationship works, not because of chemistry alone, but because Minnick sees June as herself — not just as an extension of the hotel or the water.
Some mysteries (notably Guest 411) remain unsolved, but rather than frustrate, they enhance the eerie, open-ended quality that Stiefvater does so well. In the end, this is a book about listening — to water, to fate, to others, and to oneself.
Maggie Stiefvater’s The Listeners is a strange, slow-burn novel that lingers more in atmosphere than in action. At the heart of it is June, the formidable GM of the Avallon Hotel, caught between duty to the hotel, the uncanny sweet water beneath it, and her own tangled desires. The sweet water is the book’s most fascinating symbol — a force that both takes and gives, shaping the fates of everyone in its sphere of influence.
The political backdrop adds weight: Axis diplomats detained at the hotel, espionage games, and the quiet but urgent rescue of Hannelore Wolfe, a neurodivergent diplomat’s daughter facing an uncertain (and likely tragic) future in Nazi Germany. These threads are deftly handled, and June’s protectiveness toward both Hannelore and the sweet water becomes the emotional spine of the book.
Where the novel falters is in pacing and romance. Much of the middle feels sedate, and the tension between June and Agent Minnick leans too heavily on “magnetic attraction” before it’s given depth. Still, their eventual relationship works, not because of chemistry alone, but because Minnick sees June as herself — not just as an extension of the hotel or the water.
Some mysteries (notably Guest 411) remain unsolved, but rather than frustrate, they enhance the eerie, open-ended quality that Stiefvater does so well. In the end, this is a book about listening — to water, to fate, to others, and to oneself.
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