Drayton and MacKenzie - by Alexander Starritt (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Shortlisted for the Tom Wolfe Prize for Fiction 2026

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

"A big, bustling novel about love, friendship, money, ambition and the 21st century, packed with humor and intelligent observations . . . I finished it tear-stained."--The Sunday Times (UK)

Longlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year--the first work of fiction to grace the list in fifteen years--a sweeping social novel about an unlikely friendship between two men and a plan that could change the world, unfolding over the first two decades of the twenty-first century

James and Roland's paths through life--one drawn in straight lines, the other looping and uncertain--began to cross . . .

James Drayton has always found things too easy. Ambitious, brilliant, disciplined--he graduates with a top first from Oxford and is on track to become the youngest ever partner at leading management consultancy McKinsey. His former classmate Roland Mackenzie, on the other hand, is an impulsive dreamer: charming and restless, his boundless enthusiasm matched only by his knack for self-sabotage.

When Roland takes a job at the same firm as James, the two men only vaguely remember one another. But as the financial crisis starts to unfold, a chance encounter sparks an idea, and an unlikely partnership begins to take shape. Sent to Scotland to shutter offices and lay off hundreds of workers, James and Roland begin to wonder: What if they were made for more than this? What if they could build something grand and lasting--something that might even change the world?

By turns intimate and panoramic, Drayton and Mackenzie is a deeply intelligent novel about ambition, friendship, and the forces shaping the twenty-first century--the story of two men caught in, and determined to master, the tides of history.

Review Quotes

Longlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2025
A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year 2025
A Financial Times Book of the Year 2025
A GQ Book of the Year 2025
A Bloomberg Book of the Year 2025
A Tablet Book of the Year 2025
A Scotsman Book of the Year 2025
A Daily Express Book of the Year 2025

"Starritt's book is not just for business readers who might feel too often ignored in the pages of literary fiction; it has all the pleasures of a traditional, decades-spanning tale about individuals both caught up in and influencing history."--John Williams, New York Times Book Review

"A winning tale of male friendship . . . Starritt keeps his leads center stage and ensures that throughout their professional trials and personal ordeals they remain captivating presences and sympathetic enough to root for."--Malcolm Forbes, The Wall Street Journal

"It is a masterpiece. I couldn't put it down."--Niall Ferguson, internationally bestselling author of The Ascent of Money

"Busy, rambunctious, moving . . . a deeply satisfying read."--Kate Atkinson, internationally bestselling author of Case Histories

"A romp through the 21st century via two bright young people--but beyond all the money and success Drayton and Mackenzie is really about friendship."--Laura Hackett, Sunday Times (UK)

"A big, bustling novel about love, friendship, money, ambition and the 21st century, packed with humour and intelligent observations... picture Great Expectations meets The Big Short . . . I finished it tear-stained . . . An epic tale of ambition and male friendship."--The Sunday Times (UK)

"Will have you hooked . . . an ode to the enduring power of male friendship."--The Times (UK) Best Summer Books

"A heart-warming story of a friendship that is very much of its times."--Mail on Sunday

"Drayton and Mackenzie is simultaneously a breathtaking conspectus of the 21st century, an exciting rags-to-riches adventure and a deeply moving story of male friendship. A novel has not done so much so well since Michael Chabon's friendship epic, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay . . . the real delight of Drayton and Mackenzie is the relationship of its leads. This evolves as you'd expect--beginning in incomprehension and developing into something unbreakable--yet is so beautifully done, I'll admit my vision wasn't the clearest by the end. (Seriously, if you thought Andrew O'Hagan's Mayflies was sad . . .) I don't know how Starritt is going to top this one."--Financial Times

"A detailed, convincing portrayal of late 2000s management consulting and start-up culture . . . But [Starritt] is equally successful in depicting the deep and lasting bond between the two men, who go from antagonistic acquaintances to the most important people in each other's lives, culminating in an unexpectedly affecting finale. Epic in scope and ambition, this novel has been compared to no less than Dickens' Great Expectations and will be a hit with fans of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay or Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan."--Booklist (starred review)

"An epic masterpiece encompassing some of the most pivotal points of our century . . . a powerful, poignant and frequently funny rags-to-riches adventure that plunges readers to the seabed off Orkney before blasting into the stars above Sutherland."--The Sunday Post

"Outstanding . . . James Drayton is a powerhouse brain unable to connect with others, while Roland Mackenzie is charm-positive but can't quite get his act together. Without ever really intending, they entwine their lives to defy their business detractors, create an extraordinary friendship and pursue the enigma of tidal power to a pioneering conclusion. A novel like no other--awards await."--Strong Words

"One of Starritt's many skills is how he ratchets up the poignancy, creating real characters rather than caricatures."--The Spectator

"Deft and engaging . . . A thoughtful study of male friendship."--Evening Standard

"I could not put it down . . . This gripping story raises a question: Why are so few business novels being written?"--Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg

"Alexander Starritt can write as elegantly as Alan Hollinghurst and as fluently as Jonathan Coe. It is the prose that keeps us turning the pages of this epic novel of friendship and twenty-first-century life."--Times Literary Supplement

"My book of the summer . . . this tale of two very different young men who together build a company is sweeping, clever, deeply researched and very funny . . . It is also that rare thing, a book that is positive (but clear-eyed) about those fashionably maligned beings, men."--Janice Turner, The Times (UK)

"A warmly comic saga of male friendship . . . This tale of two entrepreneurs dips into the perspectives of real-life tech moguls, with thrilling results."--The Guardian

"Drawn with amazing realism and detail . . . making the sweep of history profoundly personal; Drayton and Mackenzie is the story of two men, but also of the era they inhabit."--The Irish Times

"Subtle and compelling, Drayton and Mackenzie renders human, and deeply moving, some of the most seemingly unlovable characters of our time: startuppers."--Giuliano da Empoli, author of The Wizard of the Kremlin

"Starritt's novel is a throwback to the classic bildungsroman, but the 500-page epic also unfolds as a nuanced satire on the contemporary financial world . . . The complexities of human relationships in the early 21st century come through in entertaining fashion. A sweeping novel featuring a pair of memorable protagonists."--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Alexander Starritt was born in Scotland in 1985. His debut novel The Beast was a 2017 Spectator book of the year; his second novel, We Germans, was published in 2020 and translated into six languages. It was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in the United States, and nominated for the Prix Femina, Prix Medicis, and Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in France.