TC: John and Henry are (very) loosely based on John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis, who wrote the first book in English about homosexuality (eventually published in 1897, though written at the beginning of the decade). How did you encounter those figures initially, and what was it about them that told you their story needed to be written? It is good to be brave.ĬA: I read that the book’s main characters are drawn closely from historical figures. That gives me hope, overall: setbacks may be temporary, we are all changed by the trying. As for whether my characters throw any light on the present: well, they are reminders that in every time, people are dreaming of a better world and in every time, there will be “some achievement, and some remorse,” as my epigraph says. Tom Crewe: For most of the time I was writing, I worried that my subject was too niche - would anybody want to read about these Victorians and their theories of sexuality? Only later did I realize that at some point the book had started a whispering dialogue with the present, which other readers are now helping me hear better. Did researching and writing the characters throw any light on how you see what’s happening now, or on how you live? Here, Crewe and Avery discuss The New Life.Ĭamden Avery: It feels in some ways as though we’re living through a historical moment akin to the one your characters experience: trying to dismantle inherited social systems about sex and how we’re allowed to live. Beautifully varnished and tonally pitch-perfect, Tom Crewe’s debut is a dazzling character study in what it means to want a bigger life, and to pursue a life outside the perimeter of what the world has set before you.”

Avery shared, “ The New Life is an ambitious, beautifully executed glimpse into the lives of four people living in late 19th-century London as they try to break the bonds society’s placed around sex, love, marriage, and what it means to live fully. Since 2015, he has been an editor at the London Review of Books, to which he contributes essays on politics, art, history, and fiction.Ĭamden Avery of The Booksmith in San Francisco, California, served on the panel that selected Crewe’s debut novel for Indies Introduce. He has a PhD in nineteenth century British history from the University of Cambridge. Tom Crewe is the author of The New Life, a Winter/Spring 2023 Indies Introduce adult selection and a January 2023 Indie Next List pick.Ĭrewe was born in Middlesbrough in 1989.

Tom crewe the new life review