{"title":"Books by Ben Pester","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781803512587","title":"The Expansion Project","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO PRIZE FOR DEBUT FICTION\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlans for the expansion of the Capmeadow Business Park are in full swing - its mission is to become the greatest business park in the region. Tom Crowley, a mid-level employee, loses his daughter at 'bring your daughter to work day'. He raises the alarm, and his colleagues rush to help him find her. Eventually, after no sign of her is found, it transpires she was never there. And yet, as time goes on, Tom still cannot reconcile that she is really at home. Refusing to accept that she is safe, Tom continues to search for her in the maze of corridors and impossible multi-dimensional spaces that make up his place of work... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBecause Capmeadow is expanding in unexpected ways, a Liaison Officer becomes the central focus for complaints about how the expansion is impacting the lives of the employees - unexpected buildings, years-long business days, cursed farmers' markets, and corridors of the mind are draining the life from Tom and everyone he works with. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYears pass, and Tom remains at the company, convinced he is in the presence of his now adult daughter. But has he judged it correctly? And can anything go back to the way it was??\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57682611175797,"sku":"9781803512594","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":55897837240693,"sku":"9781803512587","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781803512594_d118410e-4ca7-4127-a8c6-5ae25879fc0f.jpg?v=1792511536"},{"product_id":"sail-away-land","title":"Sail Away Land","description":"\u003cp\u003eSail Away Land is the space where we \u003ci\u003emight\u003c\/i\u003e go when we're no longer alive (sometimes only temporarily). In this uncommon and disarming collection, the characters go 'there' with or without knowing it. Maybe they have been living there all along without noticing - just like they hadn't really noticed that everyone is carrying a shiny black suitcase.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese stories are about \u003ci\u003enormal\u003c\/i\u003e things - losing the people we're closest to, forgiving them, finding love and managing to hold onto it - but also about going to parties through a door in the back of a colleague's head, housebreaking in search of a sister's ghost, and asking the strangers in the kitchen to resurrect you at midnight. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike brilliant and strange anxiety dreams in prose, the stories in \u003ci\u003eSail Away Land \u003c\/i\u003eare full of temporal weirdness, life and non-being, psychological acuity, imagination and wit, all while being effortlessly, seductively readable and incredibly moving.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57487652585845,"sku":"9781803514291","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781803514291.jpg?v=1786354879"},{"product_id":"am-i-in-the-right-place","title":"Am I In The Right Place","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the extraordinary mind of debut writer Ben Pester comes a book of stories in which the everyday – work, parents, friends – is not quite what it should be. Taken together, it forms a collection of things we are doing right now, in this lost and terrifying world we are gamely attempting to inhabit. Things like worshipping an imaginary being while trying to be productive; or slowly dying and having nothing to say about it except how tiring it was building the kitchen extension. Unsettling, original and occasionally monstrous, these are stories that light the contours of the ordinary world with a shimmering unreality.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490338382197,"sku":"9781911343806","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781911343806.jpg?v=1786442225"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-ben-pester.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}