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
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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
‘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

Publisher Review

I loved this book — Zadie Smith Completely engrossed by this fascinating story of gay life in the London of the 1890’s. Beautifully written with fantastically complicated characters — Graham Norton ‘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 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 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 An excellent debut . . . It’s extraordinary to think that this impeccably crafted, lyrically phrased and muscular book is Crewe’s first . . . a brilliant evocation of the radical politics of turn-of-the-century Britain * Michael Donkor, Guardian * Emotionally vivid and erotically charged, The New Life brilliantly reveals a ‘seething and boiling’ world of ‘loneliness and anger and lust,’ as Crewe’s complicated, compelling protagonists battle the restrictive mores of the day * Daily Mail * Powerful themes and lovingly polished prose . . . a fictional debut of rare quality and promise * Daily Telegraph * Intense and precise . . . It is refreshing to find any contemporary novel, let alone a debut, which is first and foremost one of ideas * Financial Times * [An] excellent new novel * Independent * ‘[An] intricate and finely crafted debut novel . . . The New Life brims with intelligence and insight, impressed with all the texture (and fog) of fin de siecle London’ * New York Times * ‘Crewe distinguishes himself both as novelist and as historian . . . He has, more unusually, found a prose that can accommodate everything from the lofty to the romantic and the shamelessly sexy’ * New Yorker * Unflinchingly bold . . . Crewe’s language is striking in its originality, his protagonists are colourful and passionate, and their principles are brilliantly drawn * i paper * Sexy, cerebral and moving * Mail on Sunday * ‘Atmospheric . . . Extraordinary . . . Crewe’s taut prose is shot through with descriptive vividness’ — James Cahill * TLS * Exhilarating . . . An adroit novel of ethics * New Statesman * ‘Lyrical, piercing . . . The New Life is a fine-cut gem, its sentences buffed to a gleam . . . [Crewe’s book] brims with elan and feeling, an ode to eros and a lost world, and a warning about the dangers ahead’ * Hamilton Cain, Washington Post * ‘Crewe deserves applause for his vivid scene-setting . . . There’s much to admire in this meticulously researched, boldly envisioned debut’ * Prospect * ‘Nothing less than remarkable . . . A beautiful, brave book that reminds us of the terrible human cost of bigotry; this is a novel against forgetting’ * Michael Schaub, Boston Globe * ‘Rich and engrossing . . . blending the graceful ambiguity of literary fiction with the deftness of a page-turner . . . A smart, sensual debut’ * Kirkus (starred review) * A few established novelists continue to write first-class literary fiction on LGBTQ themes… The debut novel by Tom Crewe…reveals a new talent in the field. It is underpinned by extensive research… [with] a great story at its heart. * Literary Review * The New Life drives with a satisfying pace and a pleasing sense of both conclusion and open endings… how impressive it is that Crewe has synthesised a coherent and compelling fiction from his elements * Critic * Superb . . . Remarkably sensuous and intimate * Spectator * Crewe demonstrates rare promise in this beautifully crafted story about two real-life pioneers who tried to make a case for homosexuality in Victorian Britain… Crewe brings this era pungently to life * Sunday Times *