Words At Large

He’s one of Britain’s top 20 young novelists, according to Granta magazine, and an essayist whose critiques of Scottish nationalism have landed him in hot water. Andrew O'Hagan brings a different perspective on questions of religion, politics and nationalism to his writing.

His latest novel, Be Near Me (Emblem Editions), is a powerful story of deception, class hatred and lost ideals that Publishers Weekly called “a heartrending tour de force.” It’s told from the point of view of an English priest with secrets in his past who comes to a parish in a small Scottish town and struggles to win acceptance. When he encounters a pair of charismatic but thuggish teenagers, he gets caught up in their lives in a way that proves fateful.

Like many currently popular Scottish writers, O’Hagan grew up in a working class family. He’s the author of the novels Personality (Faber & Faber) and Our Fathers (Emblem Editions), which was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Whitbread Award. Be Near Me was also a Man Booker Prize finalist.

His work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker and the Guardian. His latest book is The Atlantic Ocean: Essays on Britain and America, which was recently published in Britain but has yet to appear in North America.

Eleanor Wachtel spoke to Andrew O’Hagan from the CBC’s studio in London, England. They talked about growing up under a religious divide in Scotland, and about the conflicted protagonist of Be Near Me. O'Hagan also describes his own upbringing, and how he came to see writing as a means of resisting the limitations of his working class background.

Listen to their conversation here:

First aired September 30, 2007 on Writers & Company. [runs 52:33]

Through the summer, different episodes of Writers & Company will air on Sundays and Thursdays. On August 14, listen to an interview with Bharati Mukherjee, an award-winning writer and professor of English at the University of California. Her books, such as The Tree Bride (Hyperion), focus on characters who are influenced by tradition but also rooted in modern times.