Yn y portread cyfoes hwn o hunaniaeth cwiar, hiliol a dosbarth, mae Andrés, athro Latinx hoyw, yn dychwelyd i’w dref enedigol yn sgil anffyddlondeb ei ŵr. Yno, mae’n cael ei hun heb unrhyw esgus i beidio â mynychu ei aduniad ysgol uwchradd ugain mlynedd, a mae’n dechrau ailgysylltu â phobl yr oedd yn arfer eu galw’n ffrindiau.

Dros yr wythnosau nesaf, wrth ofalu am ei rieni a llywio’r gymdogaeth lle cafodd ei fagu, mae Andrés yn syrthio i hen arferion gyda ffrindiau yr oedd yn meddwl ei fod wedi’u gadael ar ôl. Cyn bo hir, daw’n agos eto at ei gariad cyntaf a’n gorfod dueddu at glwyfau’r gorffennol.

Yn gyfareddol a theimladwy, dyma stori dod-i-oed fodern am natur hanfodol cymuned. Yn nofel gyntaf Varela, mae The Town of Babylon yn nofel am gariad ifanc a systemau cymdeithasol, a’r effaith y maent yn ei chael pan fyddant yn ein methu.

In this contemporary debut novel—an intimate portrait of queer, racial, and class identity —Andrés, a gay Latinx professor, returns to his suburban hometown in the wake of his husband’s infidelity. There he finds himself with no excuse not to attend his twenty-year high school reunion, and hesitantly begins to reconnect with people he used to call friends.

Over the next few weeks, while caring for his aging parents and navigating the neighborhood where he grew up, Andrés falls into old habits with friends he thought he’d left behind. Before long, he unexpectedly becomes entangled with his first love and is forced to tend to past wounds.

Captivating and poignant; a modern coming-of-age story about the essential nature of community, The Town of Babylon is a page-turning novel about young love and a close examination of our social systems and the toll they take when they fail us.