Andrew O’Hagan Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Anthologies

Andrew O’Hagan
Andrew O’Hagan was born in Glasgow, and grew up in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire. He is of Irish Catholic descent and went to St. Michael’s Academy in Kilwinning before he went to study at the University of Strathclyde.

He joined the staff of the London Review of Books in 1991 and worked there for four years. He published “The Missing” in 1995, his first book, which was shortlisted for three literary awards.

Andrew’s debut novel, called “Our Fathers”, was nominated for many awards, including the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Booker Prize, and the International Dublin Literary Award; winning the Winifred Holtby Prize for Fiction. “Personality” won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. “Be Near Me” won the Los Angeles Times’ Prize for Fiction in 2007. Andrew’s also won the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1996, Channel 4 Television presented “Calling Bible John: Portrait of a Serial Killer”, which was nominated for a BAFTA award and is based off of “The Missing”, a nonfiction book. “Be Near Me” was adapted by Ian McDiarmid for the Donmar Warehouse and the National Theatre of Scotland. “The Missing” was presented by the National Theatre of Scotland as a play, having been adapted by O’Hagan and directed by John Tiffany.

“Our Fathers” is a stand alone novel that was released in the year 1998. Hugh Bawn was a man of the people that revolutionized Scotland’s residential development after the Second World War, a modern hero, and a visionary urban planner.

However times have changed. Now while he lays dying in one of his failed buildings, Jaime (his grandson) Jamie comes back home to watch over him. This old man’s last months bring Jamie to see what is worst and best in the past which haunts all of them, and he sees the fears of his own life unravel in the land which bred him.

It’s Jamie that tells the story about his family, of three generations of delusion and pride, of strong drink and nationality, about Catholic faith and the end of political idealism. It is a story about modern houses and dark hearts, of three men searching for Utopia.

This is one novel sure to get you crying by the time you have finished it. There is gain and redemption by the end, yet a heavy sense of loss remains. It is a dark, beautiful, and quiet read.

“Be Near Me” is a stand alone novel that was released in the year 2006. David’s mom told him after he came back from Rome to always trust a stranger, because it’s the people that you know that will let you down. David, half a life later, is now Father Anderton, a Catholic priest with a tiny parish in Scotland.

He befriends a couple of rebellious local teens named Lisa and Mark that live in a world that he barely understands. Their company stirs up some memories of an earlier happiness during his days at a Catholic school in Yorkshire, the student revolt in sixties Oxford, and a decision that he once made in the orange groves of Rome.

However their friendship also ignites the smoldering hatred and suspicions of a town which resents strangers and brings Father David to a reckoning with some of the gathered tensions of the present and past.

“The Illuminations” is a stand alone novel that was released in the year 2015. How much do we keep from our loved ones? Are we able to learn from the past or do we need to forget it? Why does the truth end up so often buried in secrets? A novel about memory and love, about the complications of fact and modern war.

Standing one evening at the window in her house by the sea, Anne Quirk sees this rabbit vanishing into the snow. No one remembers her now, however this elderly woman was an artistic pioneer, during her youth, a creator of groundbreaking documentary photographs.

Luke, her beloved grandson, is now a captain in the British army and is on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. His mission goes horribly wrong, and he ultimately confronts questions of moral responsibility and loyalty that are going to continue to haunt him. Once he comes back to Scotland, her secret story starts coming out, as does his, and they set off for an old guest house in Blackpool where she used to keep a room. Here they witness the annual illuminations, which are the dazzling artificial lights which brighten the seaside resort town while the season becomes winter.

This is a highly charged and beautiful novel which reveals, among other things, that no matter the way we look at it, there isn’t any such thing as an ordinary life.

“Mayflies” is a stand alone novel that was released in the year 2020. Everybody has a Tully Dawson: that one friend that defines your life.

During the summer of 1986, in a tiny Scottish town, Tully and James ignite a rather brilliant friendship that’s based on films, music, and the rebel spirit. With school done and the locked world of their dads before them, they rush on to the climax of their youth in the form of a magical weekend in Manchester, which is the epicenter of all that inspires them in working class Britain.

Here, against the best soundtrack ever recorded, a vow gets made: to approach life in a different way. Thirty years on, and half a life away, the phone rings and Tully’s got some news.

This novel is a memorial to youth’s euphorias and to everyday tragedy. It is a tender goodbye to an old union, it discovers the costs and the joy of love.

Andrew delivers a poignant and beautiful novel that reads like such poetry from page one until the very end. It is an incredible read about music, male friendship, and the freedom to live and die the way that you wish. Be ready to shed a few tears, as you dance impetuously around while listening to the tunes from your twenties.