The Listeners

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.

Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Viking
Published: 06/03/2025
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.39w x 1.14d
ISBN: 9780593655504


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 04/01/2025 pg. 94
Publishers Weekly 04/14/2025
Shelf Awareness 06/06/2025
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2025
BookPage 06/01/2025
Booklist 06/01/2025 pg. 41

About the Author
Maggie Stiefvater is the New York Times bestselling author of the Shiver trilogy, The Raven Cycle, and The Scorpio Races, among dozens of other YA fantasy novels. Her books have sold over five million copies around the world. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband and their two children.