Two Victorian marriages, two dangerous love affairs, one extraordinary partnership
Two Victorian marriages, each an unexpected love triangle.
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?
"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 dramatises 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
"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
"[Tom Crewe is] a very fine new writer."
Kate Atkinson
This is a corker... one of the literary debuts of the year ― The Times, *Books to Look Out For 2023*
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
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 dramatises 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.
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