Authors Bring History to Life at The Omni Homestead August 29
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Hot Springs, VA (Aug. 12, 2026) - Bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater and acclaimed historian Harvey Solomon will be at The Omni Homestead Resort & Spa for an unforgettable afternoon where history and fiction come together.
They will reveal the remarkable World War II history that inspired Stiefvater's nationally acclaimed novel The Listeners and explore the true stories behind Solomon's book, Such Splendid Prisons, which chronicles the extraordinary diplomatic internment that took place at The Homestead during the war.
Such Splendid Prisons follows five of the diplomatic and other civilian internees from the Axis powers whose privileged worlds came crashing down after December 7, 1941: a suave, calculating Nazi ambassador and his charming but conflicted wife; a wily veteran Japanese journalist; a beleaguered American wife of a Japanese spy posing as a diplomat; and a spirited but naive college-aged daughter of a German military attaché.
The Listeners is a fictionalized account of the interments, where local girl-turned-general manager of the Avallon Hotel & Spa, June Porter Hudson, has guided the resort skillfully through the first pangs of war. 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, while FBI Agent Tucker Minnick presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets.
Following the program, guests are invited to meet the authors during a book sale and signing. Reservations not required and the event is free and open to the public. | | | | | |
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