The Road Home

The Road Home is about one man’s journey but it took me into many worlds, and through a range of emotions (I cried within the first thirty pages).

We get to see Britain, a multicultural rat-race full of expectations and prejudice, through the eyes of an Eastern European immigrant called Lev. This novel works on many levels, touching on money – the lack of – and greed. It takes us back to Eastern Europe and the cultural contrasts. It’s a feast of grief, love, filth, food, sex and luxury.

What made this a page turner is the lead character, Lev, a man grieving for his dead wife, who is so uncomfortable with his feelings. We first encounter him desperate for a cigarette as he starts out on a long coach ride across Europe to England.

Lev is our modern day Hamlet. He is paralysed with grief and anger at his father, unable to move into the future. It is only when he meets others with their own suffering and finally when he falls in love with an English woman, that he begins to heal and come back to life. Tremain has Lev reading Hamlet – ironically as he too is haunted by ghosts from his past.

Lev is even more likeable because he is flawed; he shows uncontrollable anger and jealousy but is also a good man burdened by the responsibility of trying to earn money for his daughter whom he has left back home, and a mother he can never please.

Every step of the way I felt Lev’s desperation, I so wanted him to succeed. The author managed to create this constant tension with each struggle he faced. Lev has his ‘to be or not to be’ moment as he faces his own demons and chooses to carry on with life.

Every character that enters his life is a mirror of his emotions – emotions that he seems too paralyzed with grief to feel himself. Each character also brings more cultural history with them. Like his Irish alcoholic landlord Christy, who is suffering in the wake of a bitter divorce, ‘If you can’t get your ball in the back of the net you’re a no-one’, announces Christy. Such poignant words about the world today.

Tremain takes us through sleeping rough, disgusting back kitchens, the charm of old people’s homes, the pretensions of modern plays, police cells, the delight of food, the sadness of losing love and the importance of relationships and simple things in life. This book was so beautifully written it had the power to transport me to Eastern Europe and to a kebab shop in Earls Court.

It’s a modern day fable with a perfect arc. Lev has his epiphany when he is asparagus picking: 'if you love something enough then somehow, you make it happen'.

I really liked this book - it's about the survival of the human spirit. When I finished I felt emotionally, intellectually and spiritually satisfied: it was a warm bath for the soul! Ultimately, this book is full of hope. I didn’t want it to end and I thought about the characters afterwards. A sign of a great book.