Seascraper

'Britain's answer to Donna Tartt' Sunday Times 
 
'A huge talent' Hilary Mantel 
 
'What a writer' Richard Osman 
 
Tom lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandfather’s trade as a shanker. His heart is in his music, but these ambitions seem far away from the dreary town around him. Instead he rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey gloomy beach and scrape for shrimp, spending the rest of his time selling his wares, looking after his Ma, and daydreaming about Joan Wyath down the street. 
When a striking visitor turns up, an American who oozes glamour, Tom thinks it’s a good deal – show him around the misty coast in exchange for enough money to raise an eyebrow at the bank, maybe enough to broaden the narrow horizons he’s begun to strain against. Mr Acheson says he’s in the movie business, but how much of what he says is Hollywood magic? 
SEASCRAPER is a mesmerising portrait of a young man confined in by his class and the ghosts of his family's past, dreaming of artistic fulfilment. It confirms Benjamin Wood as an exceptional talent in British literature.

Britain's answer to Donna Tartt... a talent to treasure

Benjamin Wood's first novel, The Bellwether Revivals, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Book Prize, and won Le Prix du Roman Fnac. A finalist for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, his other works have been shortlisted for the Encore Award, the CWA Gold Dagger Award and the European Prize for Literature. He is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at King's College London and lives in Surrey with his wife and sons.

Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach and scrape for shrimp, spending the afternoon selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street, and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream. 
 
When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas? 
 
Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.

Benjamin Wood

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

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

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 someone who wants to leap clear of their wrong beginnings, when everything that hurts has already been cut?

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

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

[Wood's] best novel yet . . . [he] deserves to be far better known

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exhilarating, earthy, cerebral, frank and unflinching . . . A masterfully paced and suspenseful read

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?

Benjamin Wood

Praise for The Young Accomplice

Britain's answer to Donna Tartt

Tense and full of menace

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 wri ...

Britain's answer to Donna Tartt

Tense and full of menace

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 wri ...

Britain's answer to Donna Tartt

Tense and full of menace

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 wri ...

Books by Benjamin Wood

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