In the year 2063, America is unraveling. The government no longer has the resources to repair escalating damage from extreme weather. Tensions and tent towns are on the rise as people flee the coastline, and growing pressure along the southern border from climate refugees has fueled the greatest wave of white nationalism in decades.

Andrew Hochevar, a newly ordained Catholic priest, serves at a parish in a backwater town of the Minnesota Northwoods and dreams of becoming a pastor. It would finally prove to him that he is good enough for God. When a revered bishop unexpectedly names him as bishop material, Andrew is thrown into spiritual turmoil. But on a sweltering August day at Listening Point, a place sacred to him, a raven appears—an omen that shatters everything he thought he believed. As his world begins to unravel, Andrew is forced to confront truths about God, the Church, and his own calling.

Listening Point is a gripping, soul-searching novel about faith in a time of collapse—and what it means to truly listen, when the world is crying out for change.

David J. Backes was the author of A Wilderness Within, the nationally acclaimed biography of renowned naturalist, author, and environmental leader Sigurd F. Olson. He also edited Olson's journals, published as A Private Wilderness. A longtime professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Backes retired in 2015 spending his later years crafting stories in a quiet room at his home in southeast Wisconsin. Although Backes passed away in 2022, his legacy—rooted in humility, gratitude, and a deep love of nature—endures. Through his writing, he still speaks, offering gentle wisdom and a timeless bond with the natural world.