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Alec

A Novel

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Alec

By: William di Canzio
Narrated by: John Sackville
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"Sackville imbues this character-driven historical drama with warmth, comfort, and a sense of optimism, especially during the story's darkest moments." —AudioFile Magazine

William di Canzio’s Alec, inspired by Maurice, E. M. Forster’s secret novel of a happy same-sex love affair, tells the story of Alec Scudder, the gamekeeper Maurice Hall falls in love with in Forster’s classic, published only after the author's death.

Di Canzio follows their story past the end of Maurice to the front lines of battle in World War I and beyond. Forster, who tried to write an epilogue about the future of his characters, was stymied by the radical change that the Great War brought to their world. With the hindsight of a century, di Canzio imagines a future for them and a past for Alec—a young villager possessed of remarkable passion and self-knowledge.

Alec continues Forster’s project of telling stories that are part of “a great unrecorded history.” Di Canzio’s debut novel is a love story of epic proportions, at once classic and boldly new.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

 Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction
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The style of writing, the setting, time, characters - all picked up authentically from the original story. The narration was excellent. I really enjoyed it.

usually sequels don't work but this did

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I was initially hesitant to listen to this continuation of Forster’s most important and personal novel, however the author has brilliantly captured the spirit of Maurice and Alec’s love story. Especially loved hearing the author’s reasonings for writing ‘Alec’ in which he talks about the erasure of queer stories from history.

Lovely tribute to a revolutionary classic

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I have to admit I started “Alec” with some trepidation. I have loved the works of EM Forster since I first read “A Room With A View” at 19, and “Maurice” is a novel I treasure. Such a bold and risky move by di Canzio to take characters created by one of greatest ever writers and breathe new life into them. But “Alec” successfully stands alone as a great novel of its own. Tender, lyrical and sensual, it cleverly expands the world of lover Maurice and Alec well beyond the end of Forster’s novel. John Sackville’s narration is perfectly suited to this beautiful tale of true love. This is a story I will revisit. Highly recommended.

A Beautiful Companion to Maurice

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I read Maurice do many years ago and from time to time have wondered what might have been. It needed this beautiful telling of what might have been!

Excellent

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