Reading, Conversation & Wine Tasting at Gell

Join us for an autumn evening at Gell, our beautiful hillside retreat in the Finger Lakes region, as we celebrate the release of Lambda Award finalist Nishant Batsha’s much- anticipated sophomore novel, A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart. The author will give a brief reading, then be joined in conversation with Writers & Books’ Executive Director Alison Meyers. Mingle while enjoying wine from Glen Hollow’s vineyard.

Named a must-read summer pick by The New York Times, A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart is profound, immersive, tenderly written, and finely wrought with characters drawn from the forgotten archives of American history. This novel is an extraordinary story of a marriage caught at the intersection of progressive politics and everyday life.

Batsha’s novel of love and revolution is set in 1917, but its depiction of racism, government overreach and feverish patriotism feels painfully relevant in 2025. — Minnesota Star-Tribune

Co-sponsored by Glen Hollow and The Bristol Library