The New Life

''A very fine new writer'' Kate Atkinson ''Electrifying'' Anne Enright __ Two Victorian marriages, two dangerous love affairs, one extraordinary partnership After a lifetime spent navigating his desires, John Addington, married to Catherine, has met Frank, a working-class printer. Meanwhile Henry Ellis''s wife Edith has fallen in love with Angelica - and Angelica wants Edith all to herself. When in 1894 John and Henry decide to write a revolutionary book together, intended to challenge convention and the law, they are both caught in relationships stalked by guilt and shame. Yet they share a vision of a better world, one that will expand possibilities for men and women everywhere. Their daring book threatens to throw John and Henry, and all those around them, into danger. How far should they go to win personal freedoms? And how high a price are they willing to pay for a new way of living? ''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

Autorentext

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.'

Klappentext

'It was as if this man in front of him were an invisible door and he was paused on the threshold'

Discover Tom Crewe's magnificent debut novel about desire and the search for freedom in Victorian England . . .

• Featured in The Observer 10 best new novelists for 2023 'Beautifully crafted' **Sunday Times 'Powerful'** Telegraph * 'Virtuoso' Guardian *** 'Brims with intelligence and insight' New York Times *** 'Vivid and erotically charged' Daily Mail *** 'A very fine new writer' Kate Atkinson

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  London, 1894. After a lifetime navigating his desires, John, married to Catherine, has met Frank. Meanwhile Henry's wife Edith has fallen for Angelica.

  A shared vision for the future brings John and Henry together to write a revolutionary book in defiance of convention and the law.

  Their daring book threatens to throw John and Henry, and all those around them, into danger. How far should they go to win personal freedoms? And how high a price are they willing to pay for a new way of living?
  __

  *'Enthralling . . . I'm confident I have read one of the most beautifully crafted, lavishly imagined novels of 2023' Sunday Times*

  'Electrifying' Anne Enright

  '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 Tóibín**

  Zusammenfassung

Shortlist, Debut Fiction, 2023 Nero Book Awards The Sunday Times Novel of the Year A Times and Guardian Book 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
'Clever and kind... A book of wonderful generosity and compassion' Alice Winn
'Subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted' Sarah Waters

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?

'Lavishly imagined' Sunday Times
'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
'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 Tóibín