I Believe in Luxury: A Guest Post by Maggie Stiefvater
Set against the backdrop of World War II and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, this is historical fiction that thrives in the time period it’s placed in. With complex and compelling characters and political tension, it’s a read that transports. Read on for an exclusive essay from Maggie Stiefvater on writing The Listeners.
Hardcover $30.00
The Listeners: A Novel (Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition)
The Listeners: A Novel (Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition)
In Stock Online
Hardcover $30.00
#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.
#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.
I’m an unlikely author to write a novel about a luxury hotel. I’m happy eating the same food weeks in a row. I don’t need a high thread count, just my trusty old pillow. The porters would be welcome to carry my luggage . . . but I just have this backpack with four identical shirts in it. Will I need turndown service? No, sir, I’ll be spending the weekend in my room reading a book and eating peanut butter straight out of the jar. No, no, I’m good; I packed my own spoon.
I’m not really built to metabolize the finer things in life.
But, as unbelievable as it sounds, I didn’t think I really needed to appreciate luxury to write THE LISTENERS. Yes, it takes place entirely on the grounds of a luxury hotel. Yes, June Hudson, the main character is its accomplished manager. But the point of the novel was how World War II changed the hotel, America, and June into post-luxury entities.
That’s what I thought, anyway.
The problem was that June didn’t agree with me, and June was running the show (as she runs everything). I knew she had come from nothing and moved through the ranks to become an absolute expert in the administration of luxury. Until I started letting her talk, however, I didn’t realize that she really believed in it.
The more I threw myself into the research—1920s-40s’ hotelier memoirs, dozens of issues of The Hotel Monthly, and interviews with modern hoteliers—the more I realized you had to love the game of luxury in order to be truly good at it. Because luxury was not, as I thought, the game of pleasing people. It was the game of knowing people. Knowing them as individuals, not guests. True luxury is so much more time consuming than the mere delivery of stuff or the performance of a requested task. Luxury means you understand the rules of their desires so thoroughly that you can surprise them with something they didn’t even know to ask for. This is what makes luxury different from service.
How can you stand to do that year in and year out if you don’t love it?
With every source I researched and every page I wrote, June and the Avallon Hotel taught me both the value and the cost of luxury. THE LISTENERS transformed into a novel interested not in debunking luxury, but in examining the expensive gift of seeing someone as an individual. As Axis diplomats filled the halls of the hotel, June and I were left asking: who deserves that gift?
But I no longer questioned that it was a gift. Yes, I believe in luxury.
I bricked all my complicated thoughts and lessons into the walls of the Avallon; June and I hope you enjoy your stay.