The Benefactors Audiobook Sneak Peak

Follow the link below to listen to an exclusive extract from the audiobook of The Benefactors, which features clips of the first person anonymous interludes that make up the polyphonic novel.

In The Benefactors we meet Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh – very different women but all mothers to 18-year-old boys. Glamorous 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 the celebrity and prestige this brings her. They do not know each other yet, but when their sons are accused of sexually assaulting Misty Johnston, whose family lacks the wealth and social-standing of their own, they’ll leverage all the power of their position to protect their children.

Brutal, tender and rigorously intelligent, The Benefactors is a daring, polyphonic presentation of modern-day Northern Ireland. It is also very funny. Wendy was chosen as one of the Observer’s best debut novelists for 2025.

‘I couldn’t put this book down. As a reader, you are totally transported into these characters lives. They are living people and I missed them when I finished.’

SHEENA PATEL

‘So fresh, so sharp, so wry, so alive. Brims with humanity . . . I adored it.’

LUCY CALDWELL

‘A funny and dark novel about family life.’

THE INDEPENDENT