A Station On The Path To Somewhere Better

`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` SARAH WATERSThe acclaimed author of The Ecliptic, 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. `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` DAVID WHITEHOUSE `A shocking account of extreme violence and its complicated after-effects. It is a vivid and unsettling novel filled with surprises and insights` IAN
McGUIRE `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` ANDREW McMILLAN `A novelist to watch` The Times 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