The New Life

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

*Shortlist, Debut Fiction, 2023 Nero Book Awards *

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.

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?

*** This audiobook includes an exclusive conversation between Freddie Fox and Tom Crewe ***

'A very fine new writer' Kate Atkinson

'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

© Tom Crewe 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023

Critics Review

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

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 Tóibín

‘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 Atkinson

Electrifying. Tom Crewe’s forensic love of the physical puts the body back into history and makes the past a living, changing place

Anne Enright

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