'Britain's answer to Donna Tartt' Sunday Times
'A huge talent' Hilary Mantel
'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?
'What a writer' Richard Osman
'An involving tale of revenge and responsibility, which, while it devastates, also tells us that new lives can be built among the ashes' FT
'The Young Accomplice shows the difference between a book that slides down the surface of things, and one that digs its claws into you and sticks there' The Times
Autorentext
Benjamin Wood
Klappentext
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.
The architects who've chosen them are Florence and Arthur Mayhood, a married couple motivated to give young offenders second chances. At first, they seem to offer the Savigears a steady path to happiness. But when a menacing figure from Joyce's past comes knocking, they are lured back to the world they left behind. Will the Mayhoods' goodwill be enough to steer their young apprentices away from danger, or will the darkness of their past catch up with them?
***PRAISE FOR BENJAMIN WOOD***
'A novelist to watch' - 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' - Guardian, on The Ecliptic
'Exhilarating, earthy, cerebral, frank and unflinching . . . A masterfully paced and suspenseful read' - Independent, on The Ecliptic