Caledonian Road

A Novel

De: Andrew O'Hagan

Narrado por: Michael Abubakar

A finalist for the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction

A biting portrait of British class, politics, and money told through five interconnected families and their rising—and declining—fortunes.

Campbell Flynn, art historian, professor, and fêted fixture of the literati, always knew that when his life came crashing down, it would happen in public—yet he never imagined that a single year in London would expose so much.

He’s never taken other people half as seriously as they take themselves, which is the first of his mistakes. The second is a new project: opportunistic and precisely calibrated to rake in a fortune. Riding on the high of a best-selling biography of Vermeer and fielding more inquiries and requests than he has the time or patience to pursue, Campbell has nevertheless still not managed to shake the question of money. The fact of his quiet loan from a school friend now embroiled in scandal makes the ever-present worry feel even more pressing. His unflappable agent, Atticus; his steadfast wife, Elizabeth; his sister, Moira, crusading parliamentarian for the poor; his well-adjusted, well-off adult children, Angus and Kenzie; and all the outward trappings of success can’t conceal that something in his life is off.

As Campbell becomes increasingly entangled with a brilliant student, convention-smashing and working class, like he used to be, he feels he’s been given a second chance to embrace the change that frightens him, even as he sees trouble brewing for his family and friends. Campbell’s personal quest takes him down darker roads than he could have imagined, and all his worlds—the art scene and academia, fashion and the English aristocracy, journalism and the internet—collide in spectacular fashion, culminating in one shocking night on Caledonian Road.

©2024 Andrew O'Hagan (P)2024 Audible, Inc.

All Around Standout

Well-written, intricate and interesting story of the state of our times; and exceptional narration.

Great Story

Long, complex deep dive into our world:status, immigration, families, community, etc. Just the right length.

Great story

A fine satire of our own age, with all its injustice and our efforts to meet it and ourselves

The best audiobook I have ever listened to

Wow this was a treat. Every voice was done to perfection and brought the novel to life. It really was incredible, I felt engaged and couldn’t wait to listen to another chapter. I have over 200 audiobooks and I have never left a review until now, when I felt compelled to, because it was just that good. Worth every penny

Brilliant narration

Have long followed O'Hagan in print. But Abubakar's reading of Caledonian Road is over the top! Every voice and inflection if a delight to listen to. A true actor who makes the novel come to life!

Exciting BIG Current Novel

Andrew O’Hagan writes of our times here like someone who has never believed the blather about novels being a dead form. His attention to detail has a classic eye for detail, like Theodore Dreiser or Flaubert. Yet he never forgets that this is an entertainment: his phrasing and word choices are delightful and illuminating. By turns funny and shocking, he builds the magnificent sandcastles that are his characters lives without stinting on detail just because we all know that the tide will come to wash them all away.

Fictional study of human fallibility

While some of the characters were perhaps too straightforward in who they thought they were, this is ultimately a story about what makes a good person. Is it their intent? Is it how they deal with adversity? Is it the view they hold of themselves? Is is the view of others? What if, when you do well, others suffer? Does doing something honorable offset something bad? Does your history have to follow you? How well do you understand why you do what you do?

O’Hagan offers commentary in the form of character arcs. I don’t think it’s meant to be read quickly, and it will probably be even better the second time around.

Poetic. Justice.

Well woven tales of people, intentions, complicity and consequences. Turns of phrase that will stick with you

Dickens in 2024

Terrific story with compelling characters and good pacing, though in last chapters at times suspense was killing me.
More interesting & wider view of life in Brexit Britain than you’d get from other reading, cutting across class, racial, socioeconomic & age groups. Quite interesting to me in U.S. like reading a modern Dickens & I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Admit I had a hard time with narrator’s Scottish brogue at times, & it’s a mild brogue but certain words … Narrator’s other accents like American spacey influencer were spot on. Was relieved whenever he shifted into London accent. Sorry to be parochial but prefer less strain to understand.
Great story. I hope it starts a trend of authors taking a cue that complex novels well written have an audience in this ADHD age.

The intelligence and laser like quality of the assessment of this moment in history.

This is the best audiobook I have ever listened to. It is so fluid and incisive and the characters are so well defined. There is wit and truth at every turn. The readers are utterly brilliant. Don’t let the rarified world of the British elite deter you because it is their impact on the world as well as humans in general and the intense dysfunction caused by inequity and greed throughout modern history that the novel so incisively addresses.