Andrew O'Hagan: "Young people distrust institutions that we trust too much."

BarcelonaMore than sixty Londoners with very diverse backgrounds, from drill singers to Russian oligarchs, passing through aristocrats and politicians and artists, stroll through Caledonian Road (More Books/Libros del Asteroide), translated into Catalan by Albert Nolla and Víctor Ruiz Aldana. The main character is a white, middle-aged art historian who feels comfortable with everyone and pretends not to care about money. Writer Andrew O'Hagan (Glasgow, 1968) makes them all talk and manages to portray the effects of arrogance and corruption in post-Brexit British society. It's a work of fiction, but many things can be seen in the pages of this novel. A finalist for the Brooke Prize on three occasions, O'Hagan also has extensive experience as a journalist.

Where did the idea for Caledonian RoadHow well does it portray post-Brexit British society?

— I had been working with Julian Assange. I helped him write his memoirs for a year, while he was stationed at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. It was a very intense period, and I needed to disconnect. I wanted to write a great social novel. One day, I went for a walk in the National Gallery and saw a very well-dressed old man talking to a younger Black man. They were arguing about property rights, colonialism, culture... and inspiration struck. I imagined a generational conflict between a middle-aged white man and a young man who is fluent in new technologies, an ethical hacker.

The book features very recent events: the pandemic, Trump... It's practically a real-time portrait.

— I wanted to write like a real-time diary and show the connections of a corrupt society.

There are many characters from different social classes. From kids from the slums to intellectuals and even the aristocracy. Have you been able to infiltrate everywhere?

— Yes, that's why it took me ten years to complete the book. I've worked as a journalist for a long time, and I believe in a certain way of writing: I want to capture the voices, the background, the economic reality, the lives...

The protagonist is an art historian and fashion expert, Campbell Flynn, who is obsessed with the passage of time. He fears losing his bearings, so he seeks out someone younger to learn more about the digital world. Is this a topic that concerns him?

— A lot. As a journalist, I've worked extensively on hackers. I interviewed the person who presumably invented cryptocurrencies, Craig Steven Wright. I was a police officer. All of this has given me a lot of resources for this novel. I wanted technology to be the main challenge in the life of Campbell Flynn, a man deeply convinced that he's on the right path, both politically and morally. He thinks he's mastered new technologies until he realizes he's understood practically nothing about the digital future. It's dramatic how new technologies can upset a person. Campbell's anxiety, fear, and anguish are awakened... especially when he enters the dark web.

One of the novel's major themes is how our perception of reality changes and how distorted it becomes.

— Yes, that's why the main character is an art historian. On the first page of the book, there's a clue from Verbell. The key is to survive this distortion, because our trust in reality has been shaken. There are politicians who invest heavily in distortion because their power depends on Donald Trump. fake news. The problem is that many people no longer know how to differentiate between what's true and what isn't. If there isn't even a consensus on what's happening, what kind of society can we have? Will our lives in the future be dominated by whoever controls the perspective, i.e., by people like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg? It's easier for younger people to swim in that environment. Campbell believes he's on the right side of history, but perhaps he lacks the resources to understand it. I have a 21-year-old son, and he tells me about news I know nothing about. It's clear that one day someone in his generation will also tell them they're naive. That's life.

There are quite a few characters who think of themselves as moral arbiters.

— Yes, the challenge for readers is whether or not to believe the student hacker Milo's version of progress. An example. You and I may trust banks. We grew up in that system. We have a card and don't ask too many questions. We're not overly concerned about what they do with the money. Deep down, perhaps we prefer to be a little blind. Milo's generation assumes banks are corrupt. Milo spends his nights robbing banks and giving money to the poor. His generation wants to change everything at every level. They can't imagine continuity because of this corruption. We liberals have tolerated a high degree of corruption in our institutions. We encouraged Russian oligarchs to come to the UK and move their money. And the younger generation said this can't be right. In this sense, there is reason for hope. People like me or Campbell Flynn, who thought we were on the right side of history, have tolerated too much misogyny and corruption. I think it's my most optimistic book yet. Perhaps the younger generation sees this more clearly and radically than we do. They distrust the institutions we place too much trust in. We are not at the end of history, as Francis Fukuyama said. I am optimistic and believe we are at the beginning of a new kind of history. Injustices have been identified, and there are those who do not tolerate them. We have the foundations to improve.

Yes, but there is a rise of the extreme right and massacres like the one in Gaza.

— Gaza is a real tragedy, but other amazing things were happening in the past, and people didn't know about it. The British did terrible things in India, and the Spanish did them in America, and they hid it. Now it can't be hidden. I agree with you that terrible things are happening and that the far right is on the rise. I'm very scared of what's happening in the United States. But Trump, who is like a crazy clown, isn't invisible. And this gives me hope. The world will move against him before he goes too far. If the world is going to a very dark place, it's because the far right and those who control technology have so distorted our understanding of reality that people have come to believe, for example, that the problem is immigrants and that England will be invaded by barbarians. They cross the shit, they believe the garbage. Perhaps we writers have a responsibility to correct the lies. And it's ironic, because we originally wrote fiction.