The Weight of Angels
The Weight of Angels

John Boyne

The Weight of Angels

€16.99 €19.99 RRP
15% Off
SKU: 9781529943856

This item is available for PRE-ORDER only and will not be dispatched until official release date.
Please note: Regular and Pre-order items cannot be purchased at the same time. These will need to be ordered separately.

Release Date: 01-10-2026
Quantity:
Free, fast & tracked delivery over €10 Free, fast & tracked delivery over €10
Ireland's best value books. Why pay more? Ireland's best value books. Why pay more?
Same great price online and in-store Same great price online and in-store
Proudly Irish and family-run since 1989 Proudly Irish and family-run since 1989

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
__________

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