The New Life
Winner of The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2024
Published on 12. January 2023
384 pages
978-1-4735-9875-1 (ISBN)
Description
The Sunday Times Novel of the Year
London, 1894. John and Henry have a vision for a new way of life. But as the Oscar Wilde trial ignites public outcry, everything they long for could be under threat.
'Beautifully written' Graham Norton
'Subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted' Sarah Waters
'Lavishly imagined' Sunday Times
______________
After a lifetime spent navigating his desires, John has finally found a man who returns his feelings. Meanwhile, Henry is convinced that his new unconventional marriage will bring freedom.
United by a shared vision, they begin work on a revolutionary book arguing for the legalisation of homosexuality.
Before it can be published however, Oscar Wilde is arrested and their daring book threatens to throw them, and all around them, into danger. How high a price are they willing to pay for a new way of living?
______________
'A very fine new writer' Kate Atkinson
'I loved this book' Zadie Smith
'Some of the best writing on desire I've read' Douglas Stuart
'A fascinating story, so confidently told, with thoroughly real characters and agonising moral compromises. Brilliant!' Clare Chambers
'Filled with nuance and tenderness . . . charting the lives of men and women who inspired not only political progress but an entire new way of living and loving' Colm Toibin
Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award
Shortlist, Debut Fiction, 2023 Nero Book Awards
Shortlisted for the 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
London, 1894. John and Henry have a vision for a new way of life. But as the Oscar Wilde trial ignites public outcry, everything they long for could be under threat.
'Beautifully written' Graham Norton
'Subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted' Sarah Waters
'Lavishly imagined' Sunday Times
______________
After a lifetime spent navigating his desires, John has finally found a man who returns his feelings. Meanwhile, Henry is convinced that his new unconventional marriage will bring freedom.
United by a shared vision, they begin work on a revolutionary book arguing for the legalisation of homosexuality.
Before it can be published however, Oscar Wilde is arrested and their daring book threatens to throw them, and all around them, into danger. How high a price are they willing to pay for a new way of living?
______________
'A very fine new writer' Kate Atkinson
'I loved this book' Zadie Smith
'Some of the best writing on desire I've read' Douglas Stuart
'A fascinating story, so confidently told, with thoroughly real characters and agonising moral compromises. Brilliant!' Clare Chambers
'Filled with nuance and tenderness . . . charting the lives of men and women who inspired not only political progress but an entire new way of living and loving' Colm Toibin
Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award
Shortlist, Debut Fiction, 2023 Nero Book Awards
Shortlisted for the 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
Reviews / Votes
I loved this book -- Zadie Smith 'Tom Crewe inhabits the minds, lives and bodies of his visionary late-nineteenth century characters with almost eerie precision and intensity. The result is subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted - a wonderful book' * Sarah Waters * 'Clever and kind, The New Life is a book of wonderful generosity and compassion' * Alice Winn, author of In Memoriam * Crewe is a stunning writer, one of great deliberate precision and clarity... I could not recommend this book more -- Pandora Sykes It is a pleasure to discover a young novelist with such a wise sensibility - and also, one who can construct such convincing characters. * Sunday Times * This is a corker... one of the literary debuts of the year * The Times, *Books to Look Out For 2023* * 'Extraordinary in its depiction of reform and liberalism in Britain in the late-1800s' * Jonathan Bailey, star of Bridgerton * The New Life is filled with nuance and tenderness, steeped in the atmosphere of late nineteenth century London, a world on the brink of social and sexual change. Tom Crewe's brilliant novel dramatizes the relationship between the visionary and the brave, charting the lives of men and women who inspired not only political progress but an entire new way of living and loving. -- Colm Toibin 'A beautifully written debut set in Victorian London... some of the best writing on desire I've read' * Douglas Stuart * [Tom Crewe is] a very fine new writer -- Kate AtkinsonMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Random House (Digital)
File size
1,32 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4735-9875-1 (9781473598751)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
TOM CREWE was born in Middlesbrough in 1989. He has a PhD in nineteenth century British history from the University of Cambridge. Since 2015, he has been an editor at the London Review of Books, to which he contributes essays on politics, art, history and fiction.
The New Life is his first novel. Crewe says:
'This is the book I knew I wanted to write long before I actually wrote it. I hope it reveals to readers an unfamiliar Victorian England that will surprise and provoke, inhabited by a generation in the process of discovering the nature and limits of personal freedom, struggling to create a better world as the twentieth century comes into view.'
The New Life is his first novel. Crewe says:
'This is the book I knew I wanted to write long before I actually wrote it. I hope it reveals to readers an unfamiliar Victorian England that will surprise and provoke, inhabited by a generation in the process of discovering the nature and limits of personal freedom, struggling to create a better world as the twentieth century comes into view.'
