The Road Home

by Rose Tremain

'On the coach, Lev chose a seat near the back and he sat huddled against the window, staring out at the land he was leaving ...' Lev is on his way to Britain to seek work, so that he can send money back to Eastern Europe to support his mother and little daughter.

Readers will become totally involved with his story, as he struggles with the mysterious rituals of 'Englishness', and the fashions and fads of the London scene. We see the road Lev travels through Lev's eyes, and we share his dilemmas: the intimacy of his friendships, old and new; his joys and sufferings; his aspirations and his hopes of finding his way home, wherever home may be.

(From Publisher).

Rose Tremain's books have won many prizes including the Whitbread Novel of the Year, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Prix Femina Etranger, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Angel Literary Award and the Sunday Express Book of the Year. Restoration was shortlisted for the Booker and made into a film; The Colour was shortlisted for the Orange and selected by the Daily Mail Reading Club. Her most recent collection, The Darkness of Wallis Simpson, was shortlisted for both the First National Short story Award and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Two of her books (The Colour and The Way I Found Her) are in development as films, and she is currently working on a TV screenplay to star Sir Ian McKellen. She lives in North London and Norwich, with the biographer Richard Holmes.

A sympathetic and believable portrait of an East European migrant in London, this novel depicts contemporary British society very well and encapsulates the frailty and vunerability of the human condition.

The Road Home is a compassionate look at Lev's experiences as an Eastern European migrant worker in Contemporary Britain. It is also a superb personal odyssey for Lev. This novel engages the reader by evoking another way of life in Eastern Europe through characters we come to care deeply about. The language is rich and powerful, most of all, and at the centre of the book is the determination to find the road home.