The New Life
by Tom Crewe
Award History
| Award | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Betty Trask Award | 2024 | Winner |
| Orwell Prize for Political Fiction | 2023 | Winner |
| Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction | 2023 | Shortlist |
| Betty Trask Award | 2023 | Shortlist |
| James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction | 2022 | Shortlist |
| Orwell Prize for Political Fiction | 2022 | Shortlist |
| Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction | 2022 | Shortlist |
| Betty Trask Award | 2022 | Shortlist |
| Orwell Prize for Political Fiction | 2021 | Shortlist |
About This Book
Tom Crewe's debut novel is set in 1890s London among the first generation of men who understood themselves as homosexual, using the newly coined language of sexology. Two men in unhappy marriages collaborate on a pioneering pamphlet on sexual inversion while falling in love — risking everything in a city where discovery means ruin. The novel won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, the Betty Trask Prize, and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize in 2023–24.
About the Author
Tom Crewe is a British novelist and cultural historian born in the late 1980s. He studied history at Cambridge and has been an editor at the London Review of Books, where he has written widely on literature, politics, and culture. The New Life (2023, Chatto & Windus) is his debut novel. Read more →
