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Selected as one of The Waterstones Eleven, for the best fiction debuts of 2013, Ballistics is a tender, powerful and brilliantly written novel of fathers and sons, vengeance and forgiveness, by the winner of the BBC National Short Story Award

'A lean, powerful book about quiet, emotional people' Guardian
'Bracing, even breathtaking' New Statesman

It is summer and the Canadian Rockies are on fire. Fleeing the fallout of a failed relationship, Alan West returns to his grandfather's home in the Kootenay Valley. Cecil West, an old man confronted by his own mortality, asks Alan to track down his son, Alan's father, so that Cecil can make his peace with him.

And so Alan begins his search for Jack West: a man who skipped town before Alan could walk. His quest will lead him to Archer, an American soldier who long ago went AWOL across the border. The young man and the old soldier set off on a reckless journey. What they find will change their lives forever.

Prizes

Short-listed for Desmond Elliott Prize 2014

A lean, powerful book about quiet, emotional people * Guardian *
Wilson’s prose is rich and nuanced * Sunday Telegraph *
It’s Wilson’s voice that is outstanding, both raw and erudite * Vogue, Best Beach Reads *
Bracing, even breathtaking * New Statesman *
Flinty, hard-edged prose ... Wonderfully tense ... There’s no doubt that Wilson can write * Independent on Sunday *
It certainly packs a manly punch * Daily Mail *
Wilson’s debut novel ... Provides all the macho behaviour expected of its title – shooting, hunting and grunting abound – but this is softened by the philosophising of Alan and Archer * Sunday Times *

D. W. Wilson was born and raised in the small towns of the Kootenay Valley, British Columbia. He is the recipient of the University of East Anglia's inaugural Man Booker Prize Scholarship - the most prestigious award available to students in the MA programme. His stories have appeared in literary magazines across Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom, and 'The Dead Roads' won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2011. He lives in Cambridge. Once You Break a Knuckle, his debut story collection, was published by Bloomsbury in 2012. It was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.