The new life
£9.99
John Addington is married to Catherine, but has spent his life trying to navigate his desires for men. Now there is Frank, the working-class printer he meets at the Serpentine swimming lake. Henry Ellis is married to Edith, but she has fallen in love with Angelica, who wants Edith all for herself. These two Victorian marriages, each an unexpected love triangle, are stalked by guilt and shame. But they are also in the vanguard of new ideas for social equality, women’s rights and relationships which break convention. ‘The New Life’ explores the possibilities of love and life, set against the riveting backdrop of the Oscar Wilde trial.
Discover Tom Crewe’s magnificent debut novel about forbidden desire and the search for freedom in Victorian England…
‘Beautifully written’ Graham Norton
‘Subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted’ Sarah Waters
‘Lavishly imagined’ Sunday Times
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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?
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‘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
‘Extraordinary’ Jonathan Bailey
‘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 Tóibìn
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