Louis Bayard: THE WILDES (with Sujata Massey)

Louis Bayard is a longtime favorite at The Ivy, shared by customers and staff alike (you may have picked up a copy of Jackie and Me on Shirley’s excellent recommendation…)! We’re over the moon now to welcome him for this event in celebration of his new novel based on the life of Oscar Wilde’s wife Constance and two sons.

The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts takes readers on the emotional journey of this family, moving from the Italian countryside, where Constance Wilde flees from the aftermath of Oscar’s imprisonment for homosexuality, to the trenches of World War I and an underground bar in London’s Soho, where Oscar’s sons Cyril and Vyvyan must both grapple with their father’s legacy. And in a brilliant feat of the imagination, act 5 reunites the entire cast in a surprising, poignant, and tremendously satisfying tableau.

The inimitable mystery writer Sujata Massey will join Louis Bayard in conversation for what promises to be a singular conversation. We hope you will join us!

Purchase The Wildes here!

RSVP here!

Louis Bayard is the critically acclaimed bestselling author of nine historical novels, including Jackie & Me and The Pale Blue Eye, which was adapted into the global #1 Netflix release starring Christian Bale. His articles, reviews, and recaps have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Salon, and the Paris Review. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Sujata Massey is the author of fourteen novels, two novellas and numerous short stories that have been published in eighteen countries. Her novels have won the Agatha, Lefty, Macavity and Mary Higgins Clark prizes and been finalists for the Edgar, Anthony, and Harper Lee literary awards. Sujata writes mystery and suspense fiction set in pre-Independence India, as well as a modern mystery series set in Japan.

Born in England to parents from India and Germany, Sujata was raised primarily in St. Paul, Minnesota, although her home for almost thirty years has been Baltimore, Maryland. She earned a B.A. in Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and wrote features for the Baltimore Evening Sun newspaper before becoming a novelist.