Bondi Literary Salon Book Club: The Heart in Winter

Join the Bondi Literary Salon for our book club, hosted by Dee O'Keefe! In our gathering, we will discuss Kevin Barry's new novel, The Heart in Winter.

WHEN: Wednesday, 23rd September 2025, at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore; please arrive at 6.45pm for a prompt 7pm start.

TICKETS: 

Admission: $25.00 (excluding external fees). Your ticket includes a drink on arrival and nibbles during the evening.

A savagely funny, achingly beautiful tale set in the Wild West, from the award-winning author of Night Boat to Tangier

About the book: The Heart in Winter

Butte, Montana, October 1891, and a hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and balladmaker of the town, but also a doper, a drinker, and a fearsome degenerate. Just as he feels his life is heading nowhere fast, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the extremely devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington. A thunderbolt love affair takes spark between Tom and Polly and they strike out west on a stolen horse, moving through the bad-lands of Montana and Idaho, and briefly an idyll of wild romance perfects itself. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunsmen are soon in hot pursuit of the lovers, and closing in fast...

About the author: Kevin Barry

Kevin Barry is the author of three novels and three short story collections. His awards include the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award and the Lannan Foundation Literary Award. His stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta and elsewhere. He also works as a playwright and screenwriter, and he lives in County Sligo, Ireland.

About The host:

Dee’s earliest memory is at three years old feeling terrified yet thrilled when her Mum seemingly transformed into Gollum when she was reading ‘The Hobbit’ aloud to her at night. The strong love for fiction fostered by her teacher parents has been lifelong, and she often got strange looks while working at her local bookshop during university as she loudly inhaled while opening new boxes of books. Now working as a doctor in Emergency, stories remain a much needed form of escapism, and she can’t help peeking at what patients are reading in the waiting room. Since 2016 G+A is where she goes to inhale the scent of delicious books and coffee, and exhale as she chats all things literary. Dee really appreciates the range of stories and people that the Bondi Literary Salon has brought into her life.

Dee's Favourite books include:

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde

The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

About The Bondi Literary Salon

Bondi Literary Salon was established in 2018, it is the in-house book club of beloved Bondi institution, Gertrude & Alice. The Bondi Literary Salon endeavours to explore the vast world of literature each month, with a selection that reflects a focus on diverse writers and stories; delving into both classic and contemporary fiction, as well as non-fiction. 

Our philosophy has always been to use language and literature not only as a tool for connection and community, but as an insight into worlds we have not had the pleasure of visiting ourselves. We welcome all - young and old, those with a life-long love of literature, or whose relationship may be only beginning. Join us in the unmatched comfort of an after-hours bookstore, accompanied by wine and cheese, for an evening spent discussing books and building community.

About Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore

Rated as one of the top 10 bookstores in the world by National Geographic, Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore is an oasis for writers, readers, and coffee lovers. Books overflow from the shelves of their store, featuring a mix of new, second-hand, antiquarian and rare books. Stay a while & enjoy some home made chai, and amazing coffee, and unearth a book treasure or two. Read more about the bookstore's story here, and about the real Gertrude & Alice here.