Description

‘Britain’s answer to Donna Tartt’ Sunday Times

‘A huge talent’ Hilary Mantel

‘Was this how it was going to be for ever? Wrapping things for customers in womenswear, no conversation. Polishing the counters so her face reflected in the brass and sweeping floors at closing time until the boss said she could leave. How much worse off would she be if she went driving with a stranger for a while?’

When sixteen-year-old Joyce Savigear absconds from work to go out with a man she barely knows, she hopes a new, exciting life is just beginning.

But, two years later, she is waiting on a railway station in the tranquil English countryside. It’s the summer of 1952 and she and her younger brother Charlie have just been released from borstal. Another fresh start awaits – but can Joyce ever outrun the darkness of her past?

‘What a writer’ Richard Osman

‘An involving tale of revenge and responsibility, which, while it devastates, also tells us that new lives can be built among the ashes’ FT

‘The Young Accomplice shows the difference between a book that slides down the surface of things, and one that digs its claws into you and sticks there’ The Times

Publisher Review

Britain's answer to Donna Tartt * Sunday Times * Tense and full of menace -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * New Statesman, Books of the Year * Highly accomplished . . . It's idealistic, gripping and beautifully textured, moving with great power. It's rare to see such attention to character and setting, and I think Wood is one of Britain's best young writers -- Philip Womack * Spectator, Best Books of 2022 * This satisfyingly old fashioned- feeling novel from a youngish author strikingly conveys its 1950s rural setting, and has a grim pull of foreboding . . . Benjamin Wood's perspective-shifting novel weaves elements of thriller, romance and coming-of-age to gripping, memorable effect * Sunday Times, Best Books for the Year * A treat . . . Wood's daring narrative decisions show he hasn't lost the old spark, but has just added to it with his new repertoire. What, it asks, are the opportunities available to somoen who wants to leap clear of their wrong beginnings, when everything that hurts has already been cut? -- John Self * Critic, Fiction Books of the Year * Benjamin Wood knows how to generate tension, makes lively characters you can see and hear, and writes about rural England in a sensitive, considered way that doesn't stray into the nostalgic. A huge talent -- Hilary Mantel Wood is a seriously talented writer, able to enter the minds of his characters with eerie precision. The Young Accomplice is an involving tale of revenge and responsibility, which, while it devastates, also tells us that new lives can be built among the ashes * FT * [Wood's] best novel yet . . . [he] deserves to be far better known -- John Self * Irish Times, 2022 Books of the Year * A British novelist who deserves more attention than he has had . . . Wood blends storytelling punch with literary sensibility . . . The Young Accomplice shows the difference between a book that slides down the surface of things, and one that digs it claws into you and sticks there * The Times * Benjamin Wood is a beautiful writer and this is his best novel yet, both gripping and unputdownable. Like people in Thomas Hardy, his characters surge from the page, and the mystery unfolds with a sureness seldom seen in contemporary British fiction -- Andrew O'Hagan, author of Mayflies His most original [novel] yet . . . The Young Accomplice has already been compared to Thomas Hardy novels and there are echoes of Tess of the d'Urbervilles in the story of a vulnerable young woman whose past catches up with her. Wood is also wonderful on the intricacies of love and architecture as a means of enriching people's lives. It's a novel that feels as if it has been imagined with slow and tender care - and I suspect it will be cherished by readers for a long time * Sunday Times * With deceptive ease, the books weaves elements of crime, mystery, love story and coming of age . . . a well-wrought novel whose pleasure is in each careful scene, moment and sentence * Irish Times * Blown away by A Station On The Path To Somewhere Better . . . Dark and disturbing, but wise, moving and beautifully written. Am immediately going to seek out his other books now. What a writer -- Richard Osman on A Station On The Path To Somewhere Better Benjamin Wood is building a sublime body of work. This masterful, suspenseful novel is his best yet. It swallows you up. I love it -- David Whitehouse, author of About A Son A novelist to watch * The Times, on A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better * A resounding achievement . . . Rich, beautiful and written by an author of great depth and resource * Guardian, on The Ecliptic * Exhilarating, earthy, cerebral, frank and unflinching . . . A masterfully paced and suspenseful read * Independent, on The Ecliptic *