Benefactors
Regular price
€23.99
AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVEL 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR NOVEL OF THE YEAR AT THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS
LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE
'The style of Woolf but the heart of Dickens . . . impressive'
Sunday Times
'Erskine's great gift is for character. Not a single figure in this novel feels contrived'
Guardian
'A writer of an unrivalled range of imaginative empathy'
Financial Times
'I couldn't put this book down'
Sheena Patel, author of I'm a Fan
'A powerful, moving, compelling, utterly enthralling debut'
Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13
'Perfectly pitched, surefooted, and charged with feeling'
Colin Barrett, author of Wild Houses
From the prize-winning author of Dance Move and Sweet Home, this is an astounding novel about intimate histories, class and money - and what being a parent means.
Meet Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh: three very different women from Belfast, but all mothers to 18-year-old boys.
Gorgeous Frankie, now married to a wealthy, older man, grew up in care. Miriam has recently lost her beloved husband Kahlil in ambiguous circumstances. Bronagh, the CEO of a children's services charity, loves celebrity and prestige. When their sons are accused of sexually assaulting a friend, Misty Johnston, they'll come together to protect their children, leveraging all the powers they possess. But on her side, Misty has the formidable matriarch, Nan D, and her father, taxi-driver Boogie: an alliance not so easily dismissed.
Brutal, tender and rigorously intelligent, The Benefactors is a daring, polyphonic presentation of modern-day Northern Ireland. It is also very funny.
⭐ A book of the year for: the Observer, the Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Irish Times⭐
SHORTLISTED FOR NOVEL OF THE YEAR AT THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS
LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE
'The style of Woolf but the heart of Dickens . . . impressive'
Sunday Times
'Erskine's great gift is for character. Not a single figure in this novel feels contrived'
Guardian
'A writer of an unrivalled range of imaginative empathy'
Financial Times
'I couldn't put this book down'
Sheena Patel, author of I'm a Fan
'A powerful, moving, compelling, utterly enthralling debut'
Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13
'Perfectly pitched, surefooted, and charged with feeling'
Colin Barrett, author of Wild Houses
From the prize-winning author of Dance Move and Sweet Home, this is an astounding novel about intimate histories, class and money - and what being a parent means.
Meet Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh: three very different women from Belfast, but all mothers to 18-year-old boys.
Gorgeous Frankie, now married to a wealthy, older man, grew up in care. Miriam has recently lost her beloved husband Kahlil in ambiguous circumstances. Bronagh, the CEO of a children's services charity, loves celebrity and prestige. When their sons are accused of sexually assaulting a friend, Misty Johnston, they'll come together to protect their children, leveraging all the powers they possess. But on her side, Misty has the formidable matriarch, Nan D, and her father, taxi-driver Boogie: an alliance not so easily dismissed.
Brutal, tender and rigorously intelligent, The Benefactors is a daring, polyphonic presentation of modern-day Northern Ireland. It is also very funny.
⭐ A book of the year for: the Observer, the Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Irish Times⭐
Wendy Erskine is the author of two short story collections, Sweet Home and Dance Move. She was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize, longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, and she received the Butler Literary Award and the Edge Hill Readers' Choice Award. She edited the art anthology well I just kind of like it. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she is a frequent broadcaster and interviewer, and works as a secondary school teacher in Belfast. The Benefactors is her debut novel.