This month the Village Literary Club will read The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts by local writer Louis Bayard (2024, 304 pp). The Wildes is a work of historical fiction which focuses on the life of Oscar Wilde‘s family (especially Wilde’s wife and sons) in the wake of revelations which led to its destruction.

The book has been described as “wonderfully researched” and sad, funny, and moving. Bayard is an especially wonderful writer of dialogue, dialogue that Wilde himself would have been proud of. The novel was listed by the New York Times as one of the ten best historical novels of 2024.