Erica’s Pick of the Week: The Listeners

According to legend, the mythical island of Avalon is where the sword Excalibur was forged and where King Arthur was taken after his final battle. It’s a place synonymous with magic, healing, and grandeur.

The Avallon Hotel, a luxury resort in West Virginia and the setting of Maggie Stiefvater’s The Listeners, has a similar (albeit distinctly American) reputation. And in 1942, nobody knows it better than June Hudson, local girl turned hotel manager. June’s knack for delighting and dazzling guests – for knowing the difference between wealth and luxury, and providing the latter to the former – is a result of grit, savvy, and her unusual connection to the resort’s “sweetwater” springs. The sweetwater cures all manner of ills, according to legend, and the Avallon provides both respite and recovery to its elite guests.

The monied ease of the Avallon is strained, however, when the US Government requisitions the hotel as a detention center for Axis diplomats (a real-life occurrence in the early days of World War II). June and her staff struggle to treat the enemy under their roof with the same care as their regular guests, especially as they begin to suffer the costs of war.

It’s not just June’s staff feeling the effects, however. The ill will festering in the corridors corrupts the sweetwater springs – and ultimately, the hotel itself. June’s connection to the water allows her to keep the Avallon an island of bliss, but she pays a steep price. As the visit wears on and layers of deception are revealed, June must decide if she can continue to afford.

Maggie Stiefvater brings the Avallon to vivid life, from ballroom décor and exquisite menus to the scent of the sweetwater. The hotel is lush and whimsical, even as cracks emerge. Its denizens are equally well-developed. June, ambitious and clear-eyed, never forgets that while she may mingle with the guests, she is not one of them. Tucker Minnick, a disgraced FBI agent, struggles to reconcile his sense of duty with his past…and his fascination with June.  Hannelore Wolfe, the daughter of a German diplomat, tries to make sense of this strange new world while concealing a secret. Each must choose where their loyalties – and their futures – lie.

With an exquisite mix of worldbuilding, characters, and a deftly handled bit of magic, The Listeners is an unforgettable, unexpected work of historical fiction.