Resident Elizabeth Fanto will review The Listeners: A Novel by Maggie Stiefvater. [New York: Viking, 2025] on Tuesday, February 17, 2026at 7 PM in the Auditorium. This is her review for the February 2026 issue of The Sunburst.
Just four days after the shock of Pearl Harbor, when Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S., the government faced a dilemma: what to do with the U.S.-based diplomats from Germany, Italy, and Japan?
The solution was to swiftly detain the foreign nationals in comfortable but isolated hotels, to await a formal diplomatic exchange. The first to accept this mission was the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia, where the diplomats enjoyed gourmet meals, spa services, upscale shops, and recreational activities–a golden cage they occupied for over half a year.
For their part, American officials hoped that our diplomats on enemy soil would be treated as well as their counterparts in the U.S.
The Listeners unfolds in the Avallon Hotel, a stand-in for the Greenbrier. Hotel manager June Hudson rises to the challenge of hosting the formidable array of diplomats while wrangling the on-site team of U.S. officials focused on discreetly monitoring the guests’ activities and communications. Within this scenario, a complex entanglement between June and FBI agent Tucker Minnick drives the plot. We experience June and Tucker’s predicaments along with the colorful grind of everyday life in a luxury hotel, in this captivating wartime novel.
Resident Elizabeth Fanto taught English and creative writing for 25 years in Baltimore County public schools. After retiring, she taught for 23 years at Notre Dame University’s Renaissance Institute. An active Charlestown volunteer, she also teaches an ELLIC writing class. This is her second Book Review.