From the Tony Award-winning author of Spring Awakening,
a heartbreaking new novel based on the hit off-Broadway musical.

Alice by Heart, the book based on the off broadway play, by Steven Sater
LONDON, 1940. Amid the rubble of the Blitz of World War II, fifteen-year-old Alice Spencer and the boy she loves, Alfred, are forced to take shelter in an underground Tube station. Stricken with Tuberculosis, Alfred is taken from Alice and quarantined, with doctors saying he won’t make it through the night. Desperately believing she can make him well again, Alice is determined to transport him to Wonderland by reading to him again the book they’ve loved since childhood, the book she knows by heart—Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. What follows is a stunning, fantastical journey between Alice’s two worlds: her war-ravaged homeland and her beloved Wonderland. But then -- “Curiouser and curiouser!” -- the lines between those worlds begin to blur. Is that a militant Red Cross Nurse demanding that Alice get BACK. TO. HER. BED! or is it the notorious Queen of Hearts saying... something about Alice’s head? Either way, the clock keeps ticking, Alfred’s condition is deteriorating, and those classic storybook adventures take on an unexpected and poignant new dimension, as Alice finds herself confronting grief and the loss of her first love. Finally, Alice by Heart is a story about the power of the imagination to help us through even the hardest of times.

About the Author

Photo by Nina Subin

Steven Sater won two Tony Awards, a Grammy Award, as well as an Olivier Award for Spring Awakening. Other works include the musical Alice by Heart, Prometheus Bound (with Serj Tankian), Some Lovers (with Burt Bacharach), and Murder at the Gates (with James Bourne).  In his spare time, Sater also works as a poet, screen and TV writer, and a pop lyricist.

Advance Praise for Alice by Heart

“Steven’s singular, brilliant, and poetic writing changed my life in Spring Awakening, and his fresh take on the Alice story brings the yearning, heartbreak, and beauty all flooding back—no one captures it like Steven.”

Jonathan Groff

“This book is a beautiful, deeply felt, and powerful exploration of the stories we tell others, and to ourselves, in order to transcend the harshest of times and circumstances. It’s a must-read for storytellers at heart everywhere.”

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
creators of the hit show and co-authors of the New York Times bestseller Dear Evan Hansen

Based on the stage musical
ALICE BY HEART

Book by Steven Sater and Jessie Nelson
Music by Duncan Sheik, Lyrics by Steven Sater

PHOTOS FROM THE MCC OFF-BROADWAY PRODUCTION

Photos by Deen van Meer

Steven Sater on Social

Penguin Teen on Social