Caledonian Road

A Novel

By: Andrew O'Hagan

Narrated by: Michael Abubakar

Length: 22 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Great Story

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

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.

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.

Excellent narration and fairly good story for the most part, some things a bit contrived but strong critique overall

I really enjoyed this audiobook for the most part although there were a few parts that dragged and were less convincing but overall it’s an excellent listening experience. The narrator does a great job with a lot of accents and I’m not sure I’d have enjoyed the book as much without the narration. I might not have been able to make it through the whole very very long story. It’s very reminiscent of the Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe although politically from a different point of view but the descent from wealth and the mashup of social, political and racial tensions is reminiscent. Highly recommend the audiobook- great listening experience for anyone who loves London and knows a little about recent U.K. history.

Excellent characters and riveting storyline.

Loved the whole kit and caboodle! Most excellent narrator. He captured a myriad of accents, slang, hipster dialects.