Andrew O’Hagan

Andrew O’Hagan was born in Glasgow in 1968. In 2003, he was voted one of the best young British writers by »Granta« and won the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

His debut novel, »Our Fathers« (1999), describes a young man’s journey to his dying grandfather, which becomes a journey into the past, his own history, and the history of Scotland. At the center of »The Illuminations« (2015) are Anne Quirk, once a pioneer of British documentary photography, and her grandson Luke, a captain in the British army deployed in Afghanistan. After Luke’s return, the two visit Blackpool, where Anne once owned a darkroom and where long-kept secrets come to light. Sigrid Löffler of DLF Kultur wrote that »The basic tone of humanity and the complete absence of cynicism make the novel enjoyable and worth reading«.

»Mayflies« (2020) was awarded the Christopher Isherwood Prize and adapted for television, with O’Hagan involved as executive producer. Andrew O’Hagan is also one of the most important British essayists and acted as ghostwriter for Julian Assange’s autobiography, which was never published. He reports on this in »The Secret Life« (2017), in which he explores the abysses of cyberspace, the deep web, and the so-called real world.

His most recent publication is »Caledonian Road« (2024), a social novel of Dickensian proportions. Set in London in 2021, it sees star intellectual Campbell Flynn caught up in a web of crime, secrets and scandal – »The Guardian« described the work as »a bold, bullish tale of hubris and corruption, a book simultaneously dazzled and disgusted by the city it depicts«. Andrew O’Hagan is Editor-at-Large at the »London Review of Books« and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

He lives in London.

Status: May 2024

Our Fathers
Faber Faber
London, 1999

The Secret Life
Faber Faber
London, 2017

The Illuminations
Faber Faber
London, 2015

Mayflies
Faber Faber
London, 2020

Caledonian Road
Faber Faber
London, 2024