With Mama gone to the only place where people stay forever, Mabey now spends her after-school hours at Papa's junkyard. Just when things are beginning to look up, a stranger named Aggy begins to threaten Papa with words that Mabey cannot quite understand. By turns heartrending and hopeful, The Listening is a quiet but powerful tale about a little girl's first experiences with love, loss, race, and forgiveness.