The Wasteland
About this audiobook
Fans of T.S. Eliot and Moonlight will love this highly recommended book. (Screencraft)
“Oh my God, this book. This book . . . drop everything you’re doing and start flipping pages right now.” —Tissie, Bookshelves & Teacups blog
The extraordinary career and devastating life of T.S. Eliot.
T.S. Eliot is a hollow man trapped in a dreary world. He works at a bank, a slave to the clock, the same routine, day after day. While London’s elite enjoy a Great Gatsby lifestyle and poets like Robert Frost are rock stars, attracting thousands of fans to each reading, Mr. Eliot walks past life, peering at it through cracks or around corners. Only in his imagination does the world drip with color.
Then one day he comes across Jack, an out and proud gay man being badly beaten, and something compels him to intervene. Life will never be the same.
Jack introduces Mr. Eliot to the gay underground of early twentieth-century London and to feelings Mr. Eliot had crammed down and locked away. And with freedom comes poetry. Extraordinary poetry that takes London by storm. But as Mr. Eliot’s fame increases, pressure for conformity does as well. Religious intolerance, fascism’s increasingly popular message of traditional values, and the allure of untold success present him with a decision that could have devastating consequences.
The Wasteland is the untold story of T.S. Eliot, his secret struggle with being gay, the people left in the wake of his meteoric career trajectory, and the madness that helped produce his greatest work.
“For poetry lovers and thrill seekers. The ride through the mind of a mad literary genius will leave you dazed and confused and highly entertained.” —Mary Wollstonecrafty, Amazon reviewer
“Wow! This is an amazing book...wholly original. Briskly paced, page-turning action.” —Screencraft
“This is a wild, wild poetic ride. If you’re an Eliot fan (especially if you know why he used the middle initial), read this book. If you’ve always wondered about dear Tom, read this book!” —Julie B., Amazon reviewer
“The writing is lyrical and colorful, but clearly still prose (for anyone who shies away from poetry), and the story is engaging and captivating, occasionally fantastical and trippy, and explores the pressure to conform to societal norms.” —Amazon reviewer
About the author
When HARPER JAMESON graduated from Brown University with a history degree, there was no inkling that a career as a writer would follow. After running a successful business for years, then launching the Social Impact Conference to support business owners, artists, and activists dedicated to positive social change, Harper realized that storytelling was fundamental to improving the world and that history housed the greatest stories of them all. Harper especially enjoys finding important but forgotten, or misunderstood, figures from the past and bringing them back to life.
W.A.W Parker focuses on telling stories about queer people in history in order to reclaim our cultural legacy. His debut novel, The Divine Proportions of Luca Pacioli, is out now and he’s currently writing a novel, based on the musical The Waste Land, about T.S. Eliot. When he’s not busy rewriting his own queer historical musical, he’s enjoying his husband Raul’s cooking.
Tim Campbell is an experienced audiobook narrator and actor who has recorded over 160 audiobooks from almost every genre. Equally comfortable reading as an American or a Brit, he has a background in history and philosophy as well as a versatility with accents and dialects. A classically trained singer, he performs regularly with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
