Long Island Author, National Book Award Finalist, Spotlights 'Community'

DEER PARK, NY — When Alejandro Varela was studying public health in graduate school, a specific town caught his attention. For years, the tight-knit Italian-American community in Roseto, Pennsylvania, experienced a reduced rate of heart disease, despite having habits of heavy drinking and smoking.

Due to their strong communal relationships, Roseto residents produced little cortisol, or stress hormones, that causes health risks.

“Having social support, feeling safe in your community and supported, is the antidote to that stress,” said Varela. “That is more important than whether you have a healthy diet, or you do exercise, or you don't smoke."

Although he had no background in literature, the Deer Park native was inspired to write about it one day, to showcase just how much community affects people.

Years later, in March 2022, Varela not only attained his goal and published “The Town of Babylon,” his debut novel, but was recently named a finalist in the fiction category of the 2022 National Book Awards.

“That was a complete surprise,” said Varela.

The novel follows the story of Andres, a gay, first-generation, Colombian-American man, who visits home for his 20th high school anniversary.

A public health professor who is struggling in marital issues, he reconnects with family, past friends and former lovers who shaped him during adolescence. These characters — who mainly felt like outsiders in their community — each have different health-related issues, such as mental illness and heart disease.

"It really does look at what it's like to live in a place where you don't feel like you have community," he said. "Their health suffers the most, but the health of the entire town is also affected by it."

Varela told Patch that while he was mainly inspired by Roseto, he tapped into his own experiences and memories from growing up in Deer Park and attending St. John the Baptist High School in West Islip.

“My characters all have a little bit of me,” he said. “Every character in most of my writing is a composite of several people in my life, or people that I've overheard, or just an accumulation of experiences.”

He also used several literary devices to emphasize the relationship between the town and its residents’ health.

Throughout the novel, the narrative alters from a first-person Andres to a third-person perspective, which provides background and historical context on the town.

“The people who love the book love that part very much,” he said. “They feel like they're both being entertained and educated at the same time.”

The novel’s title, “The Town of Babylon” references the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, where different languages were created and people could not communicate with each other.

In the story’s setting, groups of people speak the same language, but find it difficult to interact.

“There are ways in which we share space, but don't always have community,” said Varela. “Differences are treated as barriers, and they don't have to be. Differences can be celebrated, and they don't have to keep us apart.”

The title is also an "Easter egg" into Varela's life. Like many Long Islanders, although he grew up in the township of Babylon, he mostly identified with his hamlet, Deer Park.

"I grew up in the township of Babylon, and I am borrowing for my Deer Park experience, so this will be an inside joke," he said. "No one will know, unless you know me and what I'm referring to."

Varela told Patch that before this, he considered himself mainly a short-story writer, and was intimidated by writing long form. His collection of short stories, "The People Who Report More Stress," is due to be published in April 2023.

But after multiple inquiries and encouragement from editors, he agreed to the idea.

For one month, Varela paused writing and read “as many novels as possible” for research.

Certain books, such as “The Dispossessed” by Ursula Le Gwen, “In The Time of Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, influenced his writing process.

“They (those books) helped me feel like, ‘Okay, I think I can do this with the story,'” he said.

He added: “I was really moved by all of them in different ways. They gave me the conviction to say, ‘Okay, I know what I'm doing.’”

He then took 13 weeks to write “The Town of Babylon.”

Varela said that the overall response from readers has been positive, and many say they can relate to the story.

“Almost everyone who has reached out will say to me, 'Oh, my God, that's where I grew up,'” he said. “People who grew up in the suburbs of Denver, upstate New York and Pennsylvania, from everywhere.”

The winners of the 2022 National Book Awards will be announced in a ceremony Nov. 16.

For Varela, the feedback from readers, especially those from the LGBTQ community who say they relate to Andres, was an award in of itself.

“I was not expecting to get nominated for such a prestigious award. And to be a finalist was icing on the cake,” he said. “I feel like, really, this book has already won.”

To learn more about Alejandro Varela and his work, click here.

To learn more about the National Book Foundation, click here.