The New Life

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 *Crewe is a stunning writer, one of great deliberate precision and clarity… I could not recommend this book more – Pandora SykesIt 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

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.’

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