

Evoking a fully-rounded friendship with wit and psychological truth, O’Hagan’s masterful novel charts an epic night of debauchery in 1980s Manchester and its tragic aftermath thirty years later.
Shortlisted for the Portico Prize 2022
From the widely renowned author Andrew O'Hagan, a heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong friendship.
Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life. In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit.
With school over and the locked world of their fathers before them, they rush towards the climax of their youth: a magical weekend in Manchester, the epicentre of everything that inspires them in working-class Britain. There, against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded, a vow is made: to go at life differently.
Thirty years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has news.
Mayflies is a memorial to youth's euphorias and to everyday tragedy. A tender goodbye to an old union, it discovers the joy and the costs of love.
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 9780571273683
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 398 g
Dimensions: 216 x 135 x 20 mm
Edition: Main
MEDIA REVIEWS
'An immensely engaging writer: wry and witty, and insightful.' - Sunday Times
'A vivid and meticulous writer.' - Observer
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“A portrait of a friendship....”
You don’t see many stories told about male friendship.
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“Wonderful”
The first half of Mayflies set in the 80s is vibrant, funny, and exciting as a bunch of friends go to Manchester for a weekend to attend a concert. The second half of the novel set in the present day is extremely... More
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