An Oprah Daily Best Summer Read of 2025 “Maggie Stiefvater is an exceptional talent and The
Listeners is a marvel of storytelling. I really couldn’t have loved it more.” —Chris Whitaker
author of All The Colors of the Dark “A novel that will remind readers of why they fell in
love with reading in the first place.” — Kirkus Reviews starred review #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.
