Caledonian Road

A Finalist for the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political FictionA Best Book of the Year for the Independent, London Standard, Sunday Times, Guardian, Spectator, Times Literary Supplement, Scotsman, and Snack Mag[A] satirical delight. [R]ich, moving. Francesca Peacock, New York Times Book ReviewA biting portrait of British class, politics, and money told through five interconnected families and their risingand decliningfortunes.Campbell Flynn, art historian, professor, and fted fixture of the literati, always knew that when his life came crashing down, it would happen in publicyet he never imagined that a single year in London would expose so much.Hes 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 cant 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 hes been given a second chance to embrace the change that frightens him, even as he sees trouble brewing for his family and friends. Campbells personal quest takes him down darker roads than he could have imagined, and all his worldsthe art scene and academia, fashion and the English aristocracy, journalism and the internetcollide in spectacular fashion, culminating in one shocking night on Caledonian Road.