WINNER OF THE 2008 ORANGE BROADBAND PRIZE FOR FICTION
Rose Tremain's hugely enjoyable new novel is the up-to-the-minute story of Lev, newly arrived in London from Eastern Europe. A wise and witty look at the contemporary migrant experience.
Widowed migrant Lev comes to London for work, hoping to earn enough to save the daughter and village he left behind.
Lev travels from Eastern Europe to Britain by coach, leaving behind his mother, his young daughter and the memory of his dead wife. He needs work, money and a way to imagine a future after the sawmill that sustained his village has closed.
London greets him with strangeness and possibility. He finds help from fellow migrant Lydia, work in kitchens and care homes, and a brief, intense relationship with a chef, Sophie. Yet while he learns about the city and begins to dream of opening a restaurant back home, his village is facing a new threat.
The Road Home is a compassionate, witty and clear-eyed story of migration, labour, exile, grief and belonging. From the Sunday Times bestselling author Rose Tremain, it speaks to readers looking for contemporary social realism and a humane story about starting again.
'Rose Tremain does not disappoint. As always, her writing has delicious, crunchy precision.' Observer
'A novel of urgent humanity' Sunday Telegraph
