Product details
- ISBN 9781529943849
- Weight: 750g
- Dimensions: 156 x 240mm
- Publication Date: 01 Oct 2026
- Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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The life Oscar Wilde never had — reimagined by John Boyne in his most ambitious and emotionally powerful novel yet.
'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, subversive influence and alternative history.' Patrick Gale
__________
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.
?***** 'Remarkable, funny and very touching’ READER REVIEW
?***** 'Enjoyed this book so much I bought The Picture of Dorian Grey’ READER REVIEW
?***** 'I devoured it in just a few days. Completely transported!’ READER REVIEW
John Boyne is the author of sixteen novels for adults, six for younger readers, a picture book and a collection of short stories. His 2006 novel
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and has been adapted for cinema, theatre, ballet and opera. His many international bestsellers include The Heart’s Invisible Furies and A Ladder to the Sky. He has won four Irish Book Awards, including Author of the Year in 2022, along with a host of other international literary prizes, including most recently both the 2025 Prix Femina Étranger and
the Prix du Roman FNAC in France for The Elements. His novels are published in sixty languages.
Twitter: @JohnBoyne
Instagram: @JohnBoyneAuthor
