The Benefactors: Longlisted for the 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction

By Wendy Erskine

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‘What a joy it is to read’
Michael Magee, author of Close to Home

‘I couldn’t put this book down’
Sheena Patel, author of I’m A Fan

‘Powerful, moving, compelling, utterly enthralling’
Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13

‘A prodigiously talented author: funny and brutal by turns’
Guardian

‘The style of Woolf but the heart of Dickens’
Sunday Times

‘Vital reading’
Spectator

‘I miss it already . . . What a beautiful, hilarious blast of brilliance’
Donal Ryan, author of Heart, Be at Peace

‘A cast of characters so vividly drawn it feels like you’ve known them all your life’
Colin Walsh, author of Kala

Misty thought of them as friends, the three local boys from wealthy homes. Until upstairs at a house party an act of violence takes place, with lines drawn and repercussions for them all. On her side, Misty has her devoted father Boogie, and the formidable matriarch Nan D. On theirs, the boys have their mothers – Frankie, Bronagh and Miriam will use the considerable power at their disposal to protect their own children.

And all the while, anonymous voices across the city confide in us, sometimes offering us another perspective on what has happened, but more often telling their own stories – inviting us briefly into lives shaped by money and class, by family and love.

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