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The Benefactors

The enthralling debut novel about class, power and what being a parent means

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The Benefactors

By: Wendy Erskine
Narrated by: Various, Wendy Erskine
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About this listen

 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

'A blistering debut . . . vital reading'
Spectator

'A powerful, moving, compelling, utterly enthralling debut'
Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13

'So fresh, so sharp, so wry, so alive'
Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days

'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

'There's not a sentence I don't believe, or a character I don't feel something for . . . what a joy it is to read'
Michael Magee, author of Close to Home

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 eighteen-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, multi-voice presentation of modern-day Northern Ireland. It is also very funny.©2025 Wendy Erskine City Life Dark Humour Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Urban Women's Fiction Women's Voices Funny Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Witty Marriage

Critic reviews

Riveting . . . a polyphonic drama of money and class . . . Erskine's eye for detail keeps us rapt (Anthony Cummins, 10 Best Debut Novelists for 2025)
This Belfast novel has the style of Woolf but the heart of Dickens . . . Erskine - a gifted short story writer who has been longlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award - deploys a style closer to Virginia Woolf than to HBO, delivering scattershot glimpses of events through the eyes of a broad cast of characters . . . for all the formal subtlety and fragmentation of this impressive novel, then, it is amazing to see there is such a warmly conventional heart beating beneath the Woolfian multiple perspectives and the deliberate haziness with which Erskine depicts the novel's central act of class-based injustice (Robert Collins)
This polyphonic portrait of class, power and social exclusion in Northern Ireland - the debut novel from an award-winning short story writer - is centred on the assault of a teenage girl, and the reactions of the boys' parents. Erskine is a nimble, prodigiously talented author: funny and brutal by turns, with an extraordinary immediacy. (Summer reading: the 50 hottest books to read now)
Sparklingly polyphonic . . . The Benefactors might sound like one of those ripped-from-the-headlines, state-of-the-young-people, how-would-you-feel-if-this-happened-to-you sort of novels that publishers try to sell to book clubs - the sort of novel that is supposed to provoke a meaningful discussion about "issues". (Side-note: a good novel is itself a meaningful discussion of "issues", aka the varieties of human experience.) But the effect of Erskine's polyphonic method is to undermine op-ed simplicities, to insist on complexity. As one of her anonymous voices puts it, "no one should presume anything at any point about anybody" . . . magnificently enigmatic, persuasive, fresh. It takes a good writer to mobilise such a range of voices, moods, perceptions. It takes a very good writer indeed to offer us characters who, like actual people, speak so beautifully for themselves (Kevin Power)
Northern Ireland's most exciting novelist . . . a polyphonic narrative about Belfast, class, parenting, and the aftermath of a sexual assault, served up with an undertow of politics . . . an absorbing and clever structure that feels fresh and exciting (Susie Mesure)
All stars
Most relevant
The interludes would presumably work better in written form. In this audible version they are just confusing with no prior indication, only another voice. The main plot/scenario and the depiction of the three women was, I felt, something that I have read several times before. Overall I was disappointed with the book but listened to the end.

Disappointed

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I liked the polyphonic structure, themes, characterisations and strong sense of place. A stunning debut that clearly shows the devastating effects of community trauma. Not an easy listen and I had to playback a few times

Fantastic narration

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I’m so thrilled to have had this longer story to get immersed in having loved the short stories published previously. The dialogue is always brilliant, shaping the characters and bringing them to life. She writes in such a kind way about people from all walks of life but still manages to be funny- what a skill.
The structure is very interesting, seems to run a parallel with our fragmented and fast moving culture. Excellent!

Compelling and funny

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I enjoyed the story with its various twists and turns. The profiles of all the people are well done. Modern life is captured well. The Belfast accents add to the story. I did though find some of the interludes to be said too quickly for me to get all the words.

An absorbing tale of modern life

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I don’t know what to think about this to be honest. Is there comedic relief in the writing? Absolutely but wouldn’t label this book as funny. It deals with a lot of serious subject matters like consent, rape, grief, questionably suicide. It’s very dark at times.

Erm

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