AN _OBSERVER_ BEST DEBUT NOVEL 2025 'I couldn't put this book down' - SHEENA PATEL, AUTHOR OF _I'M A FAN_ 'THIS IS POWERFUL, MASTERFUL STORYTELLING BY ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING WRITERS AT WORK TODAY' - Colin Walsh, author of _Kala_ 'Perfectly pitched, surefooted, and charged with feeling' - COLIN BARRETT, AUTHOR of _WILD HOUSES_ 'WHAT A BEAUTIFUL, HILARIOUS BLAST OF BRILLIANCE' - Donal Ryan, author of _Heart, Be at Peace_ 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. 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.