An immersive and unforgettable novel of one man's life in the aftermath of the American Civil War. I knew as I made my way home that there was no home. All the old things were gone forever.
Against the rapidly shifting landscape of post Civil War America, Tennyson Bouguereau - freed man, devoted brother, nascent singer, conflicted soldier and wanted man - journeys to find meaning and belonging. From the relative safety of home in Tennessee with his sister Rosalee, he is offered the possibility of a whole new life in Nashville, until a surprising trip to Victorian England changes everything. Exquisitely rendered, and with a rich cast of characters, The Newer World is a lyrical, visceral novel about what it is to survive, and what might be lost along the way.
'A masterly work of historical witness and moral reckoning' OBSERVER
ISBN 9780571378456
The life Oscar Wilde never had reimagined by John Boyne in his most ambitious and emotionally powerful novel yet.
Can one rash decision prove the difference between a life well lived and a life destroyed?
When the Marquis of Queensbury left his calling card at the Albemarle Club in February 1895, it bore only his name and five words: For Oscar Wilde, posing Somdomite . The famous playwright sued for libel, which led to his arrest, criminal prosecution and imprisonment.
From then on, his gilded existence spiralled into public disgrace and an early death.
But what if he had simply ignored the insult?
Rather than dying impoverished in Paris at forty-six, what if he had lived to bear witness to the momentous events and cataclysmic changes at the start of the twentieth century, and even influence some of them? What if the second half of his life were as celebrated, dramatic and tumultuous as the first?
Like Maggie O'Farrell's 'Hamnet' and Percival Everett's 'James', John Boyne explores one of the great what-if stories of modern literature, giving the great Anglo-Irish playwright an opportunity to take an entirely different path.
'Exceptionally moving... A granularly imagined, witty, hugely pleasurable read' Neel Mukherjee
'Wise, imaginative, funny, and extremely moving' Tan Twan Eng, Booker longlisted author of The House of Doors
'A richly inventive multi-media novel of literary might-have-beens' John Banville, Booker prize winner of The Sea
'A spectacularly cheeky piece of speculative fiction, gleefully celebrating the possibilities of queer genius' Patrick Gale
Published 1st October 2026 - Order Now.
ISBN 9781529943856