Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

  • A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better

  • By: Benjamin Wood
  • Narrated by: Joshua Higgott
  • Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (25 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better

By: Benjamin Wood
Narrated by: Joshua Higgott
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

The acclaimed author of The Ecliptic, Benjamin Wood writes a novel of exceptional force and beauty about the bond between fathers and sons, about the invention and reconciliation of self – weaving a haunting story of violence and love.

For 20 years, Daniel Hardesty has borne the emotional scars of a childhood trauma which he is powerless to undo, which leaves him no peace.

One August morning in 1995, the young Daniel and his estranged father Francis – a character of ‘two weathers’, of irresistible charm and roiling self-pity – set out on a road trip to the North that seems to represent a chance to salvage their relationship. But with every passing mile, the layers of Fran’s mendacity and desperation are exposed, pushing him to acts of violence that will define the rest of his son’s life.
©2018 Benjamin Wood. All rights reserved (P)2018 Simon & Schuster, UK. All Rights Reserved.
Fiction Literary Fiction
Show More Show Less
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Things We Do in the Dark cover art
Escape and Evasion cover art
Her Name Is Knight cover art
The Glass Pearls cover art
Dark Place to Hide cover art
A Killing in November cover art
In the Skin of a Lion cover art
Down Among the Dead Men cover art
BBC National Short Story Award 2011 (5 Shortlisted Titles) cover art
Mother's Boy cover art

Critic reviews

‘Wood takes the passing, shabby details of mundane landscapes and makes them jitter and throb with yearning and menace. A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better is his best work yet - a novel written from the gut, and with a correspondingly visceral power. A superbly unsettling account of trauma and cautious recovery’ (Sarah Waters, author of The Paying Guests)
‘Tenderly dissecting the limits of love between parent and child while wriggling with a rich, thrilling tension, this palpably atmospheric story found its way beneath my skin and now lives there. Tell anyone who’ll listen, Benjamin Wood is one of the best novelists in Britain’ (David Whitehouse, author of Mobile Library)
‘A shocking account of extreme violence and its complicated after-effects. It is a vivid and unsettling novel filled with surprises and insights’ (Ian McGuire, author of The North Water)

What listeners say about A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Mrs. K. Gardner

Wonderful

I am often guilty of skim reading but this book so captivated me a chapter in that I went back and started at the beginning again. Beautifully narrated, genuinely suspenseful, a truly original story. Loved it.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for DANIEL

Appalling

Absolutely terrible book.
Utter drivel.
Narrator makes a boring, pointless book even worse than you can imagine. Calling the performance drippy is an insult to all things wet.
Glad I got it on audible as if I’d read it I would owe an apology to my eyes for putting them through such a tortuous ordeal.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Diana Brighouse

Disappointing

I've read previous books by this author and enjoyed them. I was looking forward to listening to this audiobook, but in the end I gave up. It failed to engage me despite my perseverance. Maybe I'd enjoy it more as a book to read, but I doubt it. The narration did little to enhance the content - I'm afraid I can't recommend it.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!