The Young Accomplice

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This satisfyingly old-fashioned-feeling novel from a youngish author strikingly, sure-footedly 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. Patricia Nicol, Sunday TimesBest Books of 2022 Benjamin Wood i s in the prime of his writing life, yet few people outside the literary world have heard of this 41-year-old writer from Merseyside.In his thirties he produced three richly layered novels that deftly combined complex ideas with psychological suspense. He has earned comparisons to Donna Tartt and John Fowles, but when it comes to literary prizes he is often the shortlistee and rarely the winner. Perhaps it’s because his fiction has a maturity and restraint that feels a little old-fashioned compared with his brasher contemporaries. His fourth novel, The Young Accomplice, set in the 1950s, is his most original yet ...Wood is a master of enchantment and unease...With its themes of fatalism and revenge, The Young Accomplicehas 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. Johanna Thomas-Corr, Sunday 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 For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial.

The lives we design versus the lives we live is a central dichotomy in the book, which tells of two siblings, just released from borstal and assigned to take up residence and apprenticeship with a couple in the English countryside. It’s the 1950s and reverberations of the war linger (one character lost an arm on duty), but life must go on. The couple’s project is a Utopian one: they wish to replenish their farmland so it can provide subsistence as they run their architecture practice/apprenticeship. Will the siblings, and the couple, succeed in improving their lives by design, or will their foundations prove too unstable? Magwitch-like criminals Wood's] best novel yet . . . [he] deserves to be far better known John Self, Irish Times, 2022 Books of the Year 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 Exhilarating, earthy, cerebral, frank and unflinching . . . A masterfully paced and suspenseful read Independent, on The EclipticEnter Joyce and Charlie Savigear – siblings in their late teens – who win the Mayhoods’ drawing competition for borstal kids with an eye for design.

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 A many-layered story of old-fashioned virtue and ambition, anaccount of the practicalities of “a campaign for a better life”. The Young Accomplice isfinely constructed, with themes of wrongdoing and innocence wovennaturally into the action. Its evocation of an ostensibly decorous postwar world full ofcontradictions is convincing throughout. Benjamin Wood’s attention to detail, his smoothwriting style and his strong beliefs give the novel an unusual dignity, in keeping with the eraof its setting. TLS Benjamin Wood's The Young Accompliceis a treat for those who have followed his career ... Its greatest quality is its understanding of how characters exist only in relation to one another. Each pairing gives us a new angle, and added depth, with the clarity of a diamond. 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? John Self, The Critic Best Books of the Year 2022Wood’s unnerving fourth novel follows young siblings from borstal to living on a farm in 50s England. As a portrait of youthful mistakes and adult blindness, The Young Accomplice is both tender and cutting; it is often subtle and occasionally thrilling. Christopher Shrimpton, Guardian Set mainly over the second half of 1952, but with brief forays into the years before and after, the narrative follows the siblings after they are released from borstal and taken on as architectural apprentices by Florence and Arthur Mayhood. They live and work together on the Surrey farm where the Mayhoods’ idealistic practice is based: tilling lessons in the morning; draughting classes in the afternoon. A happy time is had for a while, until Mal Duggan reappears.

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 You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. In the summer of 1952, Joyce and Charlie Savigear are waiting on a railway platform in the quiet English countryside. The siblings have just been released from borstal to start a new life as apprentices at Leventree, an architecture practice with a difference. Wood writes with superb attention to detail and authenticity. My only question is why the Mayhoods are shown to have a diesel-powered ‘wagon’ at a time when all but the heaviest goods vehicles would have used petrol engines.If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month. The Savigears were not the scrawny pair she [Florence] was expecting. Standing half a yard from one another in the fug of their own cigarettes, they had the restful attitude of two navvies on a lunch break. (p. 24) 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