The weight of angels a novel

"Can one rash decision prove the difference between a life well lived and a life destroyed? When the Marquess of Queensberry 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 most celebrated playwright of his...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Boyne, John, 1971- (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2026.
Edition:First U.S. edition.
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Summary:"Can one rash decision prove the difference between a life well lived and a life destroyed? When the Marquess of Queensberry 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 most celebrated playwright of his day famously sued for libel, which led to his arrest, criminal prosecution, and ultimately prison. From then on, his gilded existence spiraled into public disgrace, humiliation, and an early death. But what if he had simply ignored the insult? What direction might his life have taken? This is the premise of John Boyne's extraordinary new novel, The Weight of Angels. Rather than dying in penury in Paris at age forty-six, what if Wilde had lived to bear witness to the momentous events and cataclysmic changes of the first part of the twentieth century, and even influence some of them? What if the second half of his life were as dramatic, tumultuous, and exhilarating as the first? In imagining the life that Oscar Wilde never had, John Boyne has written one of the great what-if stories of modern literature, giving the iconic Anglo-Irish poet and playwright a fresh new voice and the opportunity to take an entirely different path"-- Provided by publisher.
Physical Description:577 pages ; 25 cm
ISBN:9781250411365
125041136X
Author Notes:Acclaimed Irish novelist John Boyne was born in Dublin, Ireland on April 30, 1971. He studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. He has written dozens of short stories and many novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. An award-winning film adaptation of this work was released in 2008. In 2015 his title, A History of Lonelines made The New Zealand Best Seller List.

(Bowker Author Biography)