Oxblood

A vivid, gripping and exhilarating portrait of a family of women and their reckonings with the past - the perfect read for fans of Lisa McInerney's The Glorious Heresies, Guy Gunaratne's In Our Mad and Furious City and Luan Goldie's Nightingale PointTom Benn's first novel, The Doll Princess, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Portico Prize, and longlisted for the CWA's John Creasey Dagger. Benn's creative nonfiction has appeared in the Paris Review and he won the BFI's iWrite scheme for emerging screenwriters. His first film Real Gods Require Blood premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Short Film at the BFI London Film Festival. Originally from Stockport, he teaches on the UEA Crime Fiction Creative Writing MA and lives in Norwich. @Tom_Benn'Confirms Tom Benn as one of the most powerful and urgent writers of our times' DAVID PEACE, author of the RED RIDING QUARTET 'A rich archive of bygone badness ... Benn's affection for the culture of Manchester is clear in each sentence' THE TIMES 'Powerful and so beautifully written - like David Peace wrote Alan Warner's The Sopranos and so lyrical, too' HARRIET TYCE, Sunday Times-bestselling author of BLOOD ORANGE Wythenshawe, South Manchester. 1985. The Dodds family once ruled Manchester's underworld; now the men are dead, leaving three generations of women trapped in a house haunted by violence, harbouring an unregistered baby. Matriarch Nedra presides over the household, which bustles with activity as she prepares the welcome feast for her grandson Kelly's return from prison. Her grieving daughter-in-law Carol is visited by both the welcome, intimate ghost of her murdered lover, and by Mac, an ageing criminal enforcer, a man who may just offer her a real and possible future. And then there is Jan - the teenage tearaway running as fast as she can from her mother, her grandmother, and her own unnamed baby. Over the course of a few days, the Dodds women must each confront the true legacy of the men who have defined their lives; and seize the opportunity to break the cycle for good. A blistering portrait of a family on fire, Oxblood lays bare the horror of violence, the exile of grief, and the extraordinary power of love. 'If I read a better novel than Oxblood in 2022, it'll be a blinding year for fiction. Tom Benn, please take a bow. Everybody else, please take note' JOSEPH KNOX, author of No 1 international bestseller TRUE CRIME STORYA furious, blistering, deeply tender novel about family, violence and the hope of redemption, set against the vivid backdrop of 80s ManchesterWith a brutal yet compassionate honesty, Oxblood confronts the past as it was and how it shapes who we are now, and confirms Tom Benn as one of the most powerful and urgent writers of our timesPowerful stuff and so beautifully written - like David Peace wrote Alan Warner's The Sopranos and so lyrical, too. You don't care where it's heading, you're just happy to step into the flow and let it take you. Brilliant stuff - this is really very good indeedIf I read a better novel than Oxblood in 2022, it'll be a blinding year for fiction. Tom Benn, please take a bow. Everybody else, please take noteReading Oxblood is a compelling and deeply unsettling experience; this is a novel that glitters with the dark energy and lifeblood of its charactersMore than anything, I was enamored with Benn's audacity: to tell this raw, violent, compassionate story; to use language in such a thrilling and fresh way; to explore the dark hearts of ordinary people, and to not look way when things get messy; to be, basically, this good