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