A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better

From the 2025 Booker-longlisted author of Seascraper 'One of the finest British novelists of his generation' Times 'A huge talent' Hilary Mantel 'Benjamin Wood is a magnificent writer and I intend to read everything he has written' Douglas Stuart 'What a writer' Richard Osman ‘With his third novel, Wood’s talent has burgeoned spectacularly. The book is a tremendous achievement, an unputdownable domestic thriller that is also subtle and moving … travelling well beyond his earlier fiction, Wood has produced a tour de force that marks his creative arrival’ David Grylls, SUNDAY TIMES  ‘A novel written from the gut, and with a correspondingly visceral power. A superbly unsettling account of trauma and cautious recovery’ SARAH WATERS 'Elegant and disturbing … this is a novel of expertly woven tension and frightening glimpses into the mind of the deranged other’ John Burnside, GUARDIAN The acclaimed author of Seascaper, Benjamin Wood writes a novel of exceptional force and beauty about the bond between fathers and sons, about the invention and reconciliation of self – weaving a haunting story of violence and love. For twenty years, Daniel Hardesty has borne the emotional scars of a childhood trauma which he is powerless to undo, which leaves him no peace. One August morning in 1995, the young Daniel and his estranged father Francis – a character of ‘two weathers’, of irresistible charm and roiling self-pity – set out on a road trip to the North that seems to represent a chance to salvage their relationship. But with every passing mile, the layers of Fran’s mendacity and desperation are exposed, pushing him to acts of violence that will define the rest of his son’s life. Praise for The Ecliptic, shortlisted for the Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer of the Year Award: 'A resounding achievement . . . Rich, beautiful and written by an author of great depth and resource' Edward Docx, Guardian 'Full of suspense and beautifully written, superbly imagined and constructed . . . A terrifically gripping and playful book' Sunday Times 'Exhilarating, earthy, cerebral, frank and unflinching . . . A masterfully paced and suspenseful read' Independent 'A rich, intricate and layered work' Observer 'Haunts the imagination long after the final page' Independent on Sunday  'A gorgeous and harrowing work' Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven   

About the Author :
Benjamin Wood was born in 1981 and grew up in Merseyside. Seascraper is his fifth novel. His previous works have been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, the Commonwealth Book Prize, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the RSL Encore Award, the CWA Gold Dagger Award and the European Union Prize for Literature. In 2014, he won France’s Prix du Roman Fnac. He is a senior lecturer in creative writing at King’s College, London, and lives in Surrey with his wife and sons.

Review :
‘Wood takes the passing, shabby details of mundane landscapes and makes them jitter and throb with yearning and menace. A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better is his best work yet - a novel written from the gut, and with a correspondingly visceral power. A superbly unsettling account of trauma and cautious recovery’   ‘Tenderly dissecting the limits of love between parent and child while wriggling with a rich, thrilling tension, this palpably atmospheric story found its way beneath my skin and now lives there. Tell anyone who’ll listen, Benjamin Wood is one of the best novelists in Britain’ ‘A shocking account of extreme violence and its complicated after-effects. It is a vivid and unsettling novel filled with surprises and insights’  'A heart-breaking and heart-stopping new novel; a dark Northern noir that moves at breakneck speed but never fails to be tender and vulnerable as well as visceral and terrifying' 'A novelist to watch'  'A resounding achievement . . . Rich, beautiful and written by an author of great depth and resource'  'Full of suspense and beautifully written, superbly imagined and constructed . . . A terrifically gripping and playful book' 'Exhilarating, earthy, cerebral, frank and unflinching . . . A masterfully paced and suspenseful read' 'A rich, intricate and layered work'  'Haunts the imagination long after the final page'  'A gorgeous and harrowing work'