George Hagen was born in 1958 in Harare, Zimbabwe. His parents are from South Africa, and, like the itinerant family described in his novel, The Laments, they couldn't stay put anywhere. By 1964 he was living in the suburbs of London, and five years later moved to Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

He graduated from New York University with a BFA in Film, and began working as a screenwriter while performing a host of different jobs—theater doorman, carpenter, word processor, cartoonist, executive secretary and freelance journalist.

After five years in Los Angeles, enduring earthquakes, riots as well as the subtler indignities of being a writer in Hollywood, he moved with his family back to New York City and started writing magazine essays and novels.

He published his first novel, The Laments, in 2004, and his second novel, Tom Bedlam, was published by Random House in June of 2007.

He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.

A short video of George telling a story of his childhood