IN-PERSON: Live at Prospect Lefferts Gardens!
Wednesday, May 4, 7:30 PM ET
Alejandro Varela presents The Town of Babylon
In conversation with Rumaan Alam

Greenlight is thrilled to celebrate the debuts of our friends and neighbors, and in that spirit we welcome Brooklyn author Alejandro Varela and his first novel The Town of Babylon, named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Buzzfeed, Lambda Literary, and more. Andrés, a gay, Latinx professor, returns to his suburban hometown to help his ailing father. While there, he ends up attending his 20 year high school reunion and is brought back into contact with the many characters from his youth: his first love who is now married with children, his former best friend who is being institutionalized for mental illness, a man he thinks killed someone in high school in a homophobic rage who is now a minister, and more. Varela probes the intertwining of community and self and renders an intimate portrait of queer, racial, and class identity in this moving, politically engaged tale hailed as "an incandescent bildungsroman" (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review). Varela will be joined at our Flatbush Ave. store by celebrated fellow Brooklynite and friend of Greenlight Rumaan Alam (Leave the World Behind) for an evening discussing craft, stories of reckoning, and more.

Click here to register for this event in-person!