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The Road Home | 
 enlarge | Author: Rose Tremain
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.86
You Save: £4.13 (52%)
New (32) Used (6) from £2.70
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 8
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 4.9 x 1
ISBN: 0099478463
EAN: 9780099478461
ASIN: 0099478463
Publication Date: June 12, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Another fine book from a true original July 22, 2007
Graeme H (Sydney, Australia)
143 out of 146 found this review helpful
Rose Tremain can, it seems, do just about anything. Each one of her books is utterly different from the last, each creates a detailed and authentic world for her characters and their quests.
In The Road Home, Tremain tells the story of Lev, an Eastern European migrant worker who has left his village and travelled to England so that he can finance a better life for his mother and daugther. He takes with him his grief for his dead wife. There is an almost fairytale-like quality to Lev's chance encounters and where they lead him, although, that said, they also feel natural and possible; Tremain has always been good on the essential randomness of experience.
Lev's London is awash with money, celebrity and complacency - an ugly picture of the way we live now - but there is nothing polemical about the book. The world Tremain creates feels real, and she allows her characters to negotiate it, and make their compromises with it, in a way that is both convincing and very poignant. There is also a rich vein of humour that runs through the book, much of which comes from the stories about and conversations with Lev's friend Rudi, who has stayed back in the village.
The 1983 Granta list of best young British novelists famously includes: McEwan, Rushdie, Pat Barker, Amis, Graham Swift. Tremain was among this group but in my view remains a little underrated. Both Music & Silence and Restoration have found critical acclaim and broad readerships, but The Colour - a fine, fine book - did less well, and The Way I Found Her is a book far less well known than it should be. Almost alone amongst that stellar group of 1983, she hasn't yet put a foot wrong.
A superb new novel from Rose Tremain June 11, 2007
dickiebird (Suffolk, UK)
96 out of 99 found this review helpful
I have always admired the award-winning author Rose Tremain, but her new novel THE ROAD HOME is the one that has given me the most pleasure. The tale of Lev, a middle aged Polish migrant worker, who comes to London after losing both his job and his wife, is both moving and funny. It's a marvellous take on modern Britain where foreign workers on scant wages toil away in the kitchens of posh restaurants in London and asparagus fields in Norfolk, whilst at the other end of the scale celebrity culture rules. Lev is a good man and a heroic hard worker. As he struggles to earn enough money to send home to his mother who looks after his little girl, he is helped by unexpected acts of kindness from a cast of diverse and entirely uncliched characters. Beautifully written, THE ROAD HOME is an uplifting read and highly recommended.
excellent read July 21, 2007
Mrs. T. S. Carr (Merseyside, UK)
49 out of 53 found this review helpful
This is the first (but not the last) novel I've read by Rose Tremain. I bought it after reading excellent reviews in a newspaper supplement and wasn't disappointed. The main theme is hugely topical and provides a perceptive and thought-provoking insight into the lives of immigrant east-european workers currently arriving in the UK in search of work. All the characters in the novel are believable and it is easy to empathise with them, especially Lev the protagonist who is realistically drawn. Lev's story is probably not exceptional, but nontheless it is very interesting, humorous and moving: it moved me to tears and laughter in equal parts. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey which had me hooked from the opening page. Highly recommended - an easy but wonderful read.
One of the best novels I've read this year July 21, 2008
Caroline (Newbury, Berks United Kingdom)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this novel so much that when I was three quarters of the way through I went back to the beginning and started again! Tremain is an excellent writer. Her prose is full of colourful images and she has an eye for the quirky, the absurd, which makes for an entertaining read. In this tale the line between tragedy and comedy is finely walked. Lev is a beguiling hero - in many ways brave and admirable, but also flawed. His story is sad, sometimes brutal, but always handled with compassion. This novel could easily be read as a treatise on the plight of the immigrant worker - but it is more complex than that. Ultimately it is about the irrepressiblity of the human spirit and I loved it.
So touching July 7, 2008
Boof (United Kingdom)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I found this book both so beautifully written that I longed to pick it up when I wasn't reading it, but also deeply humbling.
The story is centred around Lev, a 42 year old Eastern European who has a 5 year old daughter and whose wife died a few years ago. The book opens with the long bus journey from Levs country towards England to look for work and with only 20 in his pocket. We watch Lev stumble through his first few days looking for work, sleeping in the open air and delivering leaflets for 5 per day as he desperately tries to carve out a living so that he can send money home to his daughter and elderly mother. Through frequent flashbacks and conversations with his friend back home we also learn about why Lev had to leave and come to the UK to look for work.
This book (the first one I have read by Tremain - but certainly not the last) is not only exquisitely written but it had a much deeper effect too on making me think about how much we take for granted in the west. I loved every page, every word in fact.
I really can't recommend this book highly enough - it's moving, nostalgic and engaging and one I will remember for a long time.
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