Queer Book Club

The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela

Queer Book Club is a small but enthusiastic community that meets monthly to discuss queer-themed books spanning numerous genres.

This month we'll be meeting in the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library's conference room 401-D to discuss "The Town of Babylon" by Alejandro Varela. 

When his father falls ill, Andrés goes back home to tend to his recovery. Reevaluating his rocky marriage in the wake of his husband's infidelity and with little else to do, Andrés decides to attend his twenty-year high school reunion, where he runs into the long-lost characters of his youth.

Jeremy, his first love, is now married with two children after having been incarcerated and recovering from addiction. Paul, who Andrés has long suspected of having killed a man in a homophobic attack, is now an Evangelical minister and father of five. And Simone, Andrés's best friend, is in a psychiatric institution following a diagnosis of schizophrenia. During this short stay, Andrés confronts these relationships, the death of his brother, and the many sacrifices his parents made to offer him a better life.

A novel about the essential nature of community in maintaining one's own health, The Town of Babylon is an intimate portrait of queer, racial, and class identity, a call to reevaluate the ties of societal bonds and the systems in which they are forged.

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