Alec

A Novel

By: William di Canzio

Narrated by: John Sackville

"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

©2021 William di Canzio (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Beautiful novel

I absolutely loved it. I cried, I laughed, and lived with the heroes. Can’t imagine a better sequel to the original story.

A brilliant twin to “Maurice”

The writer captures the imagination with brilliant writing of all aspects of the story. Background, action, inner dialogue, and sex. Finally, someone who can write a sex scene that is actually worth reading and is a necessary and seamless part of the story.

Snuggle up for a nice ride.

SHATTERING

William di Canzio has taken a good book and expanded it into a masterpiece. Alec is romantic, transgressive in the best sense of the word, emotionally shattering and movingly narrated.

A beautiful retelling - masterful and moving

Maurice rocked my world when I read it decades ago. I can’t imagine what Alec would’ve done - and the impact it will have on young people finding their way in the future . It’s a lovely reimagining of the story from Scudder’s point of view - a perspective that is more relatable to many people than the upper crust Oxbridge world of Maurice. The writing is poetic and it fills out the story in a way that I couldn’t put down. What a way to spend the last 2 days!

Stunning

‘Alec’ is a beautiful story, exquisitely written, and narrated and performed with great care and finesse. I highly recommend it.

Masterful

This is what storytelling is all about. This is the stuff, right here. Absolutely brilliant.

Marvelous continuation of Maurice

This novel is a wonderful continuation of the E.M. Forster original. The writing seems to belong to the same narrative. I was very pleased. Highly recommended.

Great continuation of Forster’s “Maurice”

I rushed to this novel after finishing Maurice. Di Canzio did an excellent job capturing the feel of Forster’s classic. If you enjoyed its predecessor I have no doubt that you’ll enjoy Alec.

Loved every minute.

Amazingly beautiful and human story of love, trust, acceptance, and strength. Thoroughly enjoyable and heartwarming. The talented narration brought the story to life and is a work of art in itself.

Bravo

I’ve adored Forster’s Maurice for many years, and I was delighted to discover that di Canzio had written a novel to succeed Forster’s original. It is a creative imagining of Alec and Maurice’s future, and I wish the story kept going. Overall, the story was a treat, the audio performance was great, and I look forward to more works by di Canzio.