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The Road Home
by
Rose Tremain
In the wake of factory closings and his beloved wife's death, Lev is on his way from Eastern Europe to London, seeking work to support his mother and his little daughter. After a spell of homelessness, he finds a job in the kitchen of a posh restaurant, and a room in the house of an appealing Irishman who has also lost his family. Never mind that Lev must sleep in a bunk b...more
Hardcover, 368 pages
Published
August 26th 2008
by Little Brown and Company
(first published August 1st 2007)
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Fiction so convincing that it could be a true story
The journey begins with Lev's bus journey from his home in Poland to the loneliness of impersonal London. Lev is into his early forties, has recently lost his wife to cancer and believes that the only way that he can support his very young daughter and his mother is to find himself a job in London. His life-long friend, who supposedly knows such things, has told Lev that he should be able to get by in London on £20 a week. The truth ...more
The journey begins with Lev's bus journey from his home in Poland to the loneliness of impersonal London. Lev is into his early forties, has recently lost his wife to cancer and believes that the only way that he can support his very young daughter and his mother is to find himself a job in London. His life-long friend, who supposedly knows such things, has told Lev that he should be able to get by in London on £20 a week. The truth ...more
Am writing this in post read glow. I love Tremain, i definately need to read more. Music and Silence was such a treasure of a book for me, and this one so totally different it threw me for a bit. The setting of a gritty and real London, people struggling to get by, cold bitter and grim was a little close to home. But once that feeling passed I had to acknowledge that It was good to be reading about real life, current issues and struggles. I think Tremains real gift in this was her characterisat...more
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It's a bit crazy to call this a travel book but it certainly transported me. Lev, a Polish migrant goes to England from his small village in Poland in order to find work. He is a widower and needs to support his mother and young daughter. The story shows us the first world from the eyes of the dispossessed and underclass. In Lev's case, he finds a career and a way home. On the way, you meet mostly valiant people who are trying their best to find a life for themselves. For side benefits the ...more
Fantastic book. I've only read one other by her, ages ago, which I also liked (and of course given Alzheimer's can't remember title or much about it except it was about royalty in Denmark, possibly? A royal commissioning a musician? Ah yes! Music & Silence! That was it!) Anyway, that was a historical novel and very good, but this is totally bang up to date, and seems an entirely different style, and really quite captivating. A real story for our times. The dreamy East European hero Lev is uncons...more
I was a bit tentative about reading this book; it did not initially appeal to me. However, I'm really glad I read the book. The characters really stayed with me. I think it is in many ways a story about the transitions people go through in their lives (or about people adapting when they really have no other choice).
A beautifully written and satisfying tale of the travails of an East European economic migrant in London. After learning the ropes, he seems to fall on his feet with a catering job, a friendly landlord and a girl, but he doesn't feel he fits in and becomes increasingly distant from his family back home and so comes to realise he needs a plan to sort his life out. The sense of isloation is effectively conveyed as is the shallowness of some London society. It's a novel of great humanity and seniti...more
I really enjoyed this, my first Tremain novel. Not a difficult or challenging book, but one to savour, enjoy and remember. The story of Lev who came from Poland to London to make money for his family could, I guess, be the tale of many east Europeans in the last five years, but, as this personalises his life and his character, we can identify with him all the more.
What I loved about the book was mostly the array of people we come across: the crazy friend back home with his "Tchevi", Ly...more
What I loved about the book was mostly the array of people we come across: the crazy friend back home with his "Tchevi", Ly...more
While traveling to London over the holidays, I yet again was sparked with curiosity about the political, social, and economical effects of the EU. An already hugely diverse city, London almost now seems to be like the multicultural melting pot New York must have been back at the turn of the 20th century; still frozen in fragments and only in the beginning stages of meltyness.
This is the premise for Tremain's novel The Road Home, about protagonist Lev: an migrant worker who is forced ...more
This is the premise for Tremain's novel The Road Home, about protagonist Lev: an migrant worker who is forced ...more
I'm a fan of Rose Tremain's work, some of it more than others, of course. She writes about people on the margin, people exiled or disconnected from their true natures by life events or social convention. In this way, 'The Road Home,' a story of an Eastern European immigrant struggling to find work and a life in London, is of a piece with other Tremain novels. And yet, it's not. Lev, our hero, is a much more conventional person than other Tremain protagonists. He's more fully drawn, too, less sty...more
The writer says she talked to the Polish workers before starting this novel so we assume Lev is polish but to give her imagination a free rein, Tremain made up the names of the places and whatsoever. She tries to show that Britain has become a multinational country which consists of different colors and ethnic backgrounds and she want to cry out for compassion and tolerance for such differences. In a hidden subtext maybe she’s saying that this is actually the ‘cultural cornucopia’ that Britain h...more
This is a story that was sad in many places, but ultimately hopeful.
In spite of his circumstances, Lev has lots of good luck - too much to be credible in the opinion of many of the Avid Readers group - but I have a sneaking suspicion that the author may have been a little in love with her creation: she made bad things happen to him, but then couldn't bear to see him struggle for too long. Another criticism made in our discussion was that Lev's outbursts of temper were inconsistent wit...more
In spite of his circumstances, Lev has lots of good luck - too much to be credible in the opinion of many of the Avid Readers group - but I have a sneaking suspicion that the author may have been a little in love with her creation: she made bad things happen to him, but then couldn't bear to see him struggle for too long. Another criticism made in our discussion was that Lev's outbursts of temper were inconsistent wit...more
Bookmarks Magazine
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Rose Tremain, "phenomenally adept at slipping into skins very different from her own" (Los Angeles Times), persuasively explores the contemporary immigrant experience through the eyes of a middle-aged, Eastern European man. Lev is not a caricature or a stereotypenone of Tremain's characters arebut a wholly sympathetic and convincing character whose small hopes and disappointments are grounded in the everyday. Lev's fundamental sense of otherness and his impressions of Western socie
...more
Melanie Garrett
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Recommends it for:
anyone who likes Juliet Stevenson
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I adored this book.
Initially I didn't think I'd be interested, because the plot description is: "42-year-old Lev has left his mother and child in his village in Eastern Europe to seek work in London." The story is of his experience in London. This did not sound particularly interesting to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed a book by Rose Tremain last week ("Trespass"), and so, I tried this one, the only other one by Tremain on the Kindle. And I loved it. As with ma...more
Initially I didn't think I'd be interested, because the plot description is: "42-year-old Lev has left his mother and child in his village in Eastern Europe to seek work in London." The story is of his experience in London. This did not sound particularly interesting to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed a book by Rose Tremain last week ("Trespass"), and so, I tried this one, the only other one by Tremain on the Kindle. And I loved it. As with ma...more
I almost gave this five stars and then reverted back to four. Then back to five. Let's call it a solid 4 and a half.
Lev is a middle aged widower from an unnamed Eastern European country. He loses his job in a lumber yard because "they ran out of trees." In an effort to support his mother and his young daughter he travels to London where he has been told he can live on 20 pounds a week. As he says,"I am going to their country and I'm going to make them share it with...more
Lev is a middle aged widower from an unnamed Eastern European country. He loses his job in a lumber yard because "they ran out of trees." In an effort to support his mother and his young daughter he travels to London where he has been told he can live on 20 pounds a week. As he says,"I am going to their country and I'm going to make them share it with...more
I'm a fan of Rose Tremain. She's written better books than this, although I found her writing here as readable and absorbing as ever. Lev's story is a bit of a fairytale. But, well - sometimes I like a fairytale.
I was less convinced by Tremain's satire on the London arts scene. These characters - amoral, superficial, vain, empty of all meaning - seemed to have wandered in from another novel entirely. It's not even that they were badly written, just that they clashed so badly with the...more
I was less convinced by Tremain's satire on the London arts scene. These characters - amoral, superficial, vain, empty of all meaning - seemed to have wandered in from another novel entirely. It's not even that they were badly written, just that they clashed so badly with the...more
Often I will ride the subway through territory that has been turned into subunits of a foreign country - Littly Italy, China Town etc - and I am left to wonder if this natural drive to the familiar runs counter to why immigrants come here, and what on earth all that means to the kids, and is this a step forward, backward or a necessity? In some ways these musings were addressed in The Road Home, a sensitive and well written tale of a weary man's quest for a decent living in a new land, all the w...more
Overall this was a very good story. I'd give the book a 3.5 rather than a four just because it was a surprisingly slow read. (C'mon goodreads, allow 1/2 marks!) Not sure why that was - the story is compelling enough that I should have gotten through it in a few days but somehow the first half of the book really dragged.
The story is about a 44 year old Russian man named Lev who leaves his small village to make money in England to support his aging mother and young daughter. His exp...more
The story is about a 44 year old Russian man named Lev who leaves his small village to make money in England to support his aging mother and young daughter. His exp...more
From the jacket blurb, this sounded really promising. An important contemporary issue. Culturally relevant. Immediate! Orange Prize winner!
I've been able to see some of the effects of the wave of Eastern European (mostly Polish) immigration here in Scotland over the past couple years. A Polish deli opened her...more
Like so many others, Lev is on his way from Eastern Europe to Britain, seeking work. He is a tiny part of a vast diaspora that is changing British society at this very moment.
I've been able to see some of the effects of the wave of Eastern European (mostly Polish) immigration here in Scotland over the past couple years. A Polish deli opened her...more
This is the story of a man down in his luck (widowed, out of work) who goes the London to find prosperity and a new life for his daughter and mother.
Once there he goes from meeting a kind heart on his train ride, to being homeless, finding a job, losing the job, find love, losing the love...and finally finding himself.
As he goes through the ups and downs of life in London, he carries the grief of the death of his wife with him and he never feels he will live up to his own or the worl...more
Once there he goes from meeting a kind heart on his train ride, to being homeless, finding a job, losing the job, find love, losing the love...and finally finding himself.
As he goes through the ups and downs of life in London, he carries the grief of the death of his wife with him and he never feels he will live up to his own or the worl...more
Although the theme of this novel- an immigrant quixotically flailing to adapt to life in a cold, detached city- is well-trodden territory, Tremain brings an 21st sense and sensibility to these wonderful characters.
Lev, a widower who leaves behind his mother and young daughter in an economically-doomed Eastern European village, does not have to fight the bureaucratic quagmire of his immigrant predecessors (he is, after all, a citizen of the EU), but that does not mean he is welcomed ...more
Lev, a widower who leaves behind his mother and young daughter in an economically-doomed Eastern European village, does not have to fight the bureaucratic quagmire of his immigrant predecessors (he is, after all, a citizen of the EU), but that does not mean he is welcomed ...more
"Planes kept passing overhead, embroidering the sky with garlands of vapor" (24).
"Slowly, he turned the rack of postcards, and scenes from life in London revolved obediently in front of him" (30).
"'True,' Rudi had answered, staring at the strips of cloth. 'History got them at an impressionable age'" (33).
"'Best' he knew was an important concept, one seldom alluded to in his country, except by people like Rudi, who yearned to adorn himself with...more
"Slowly, he turned the rack of postcards, and scenes from life in London revolved obediently in front of him" (30).
"'True,' Rudi had answered, staring at the strips of cloth. 'History got them at an impressionable age'" (33).
"'Best' he knew was an important concept, one seldom alluded to in his country, except by people like Rudi, who yearned to adorn himself with...more
I've read a lot of favorable things about Rose Tremain's work, but had never tried it. This book was my first. It's a tale of a widowed Eastern European man, out of work, who leaves his daughter in the care of his mother and goes to London with the intention of making enough money to support them all. Set in today's world, it captures the uncertainty, angst and vulnerability of an immigrant thrown into the midst of contemporary big city living. Lev, the protagonist, is appealing and...more
Barbara Nourse
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Recommended to Barbara by:
list from a friend's book club
When Lev loses his job in a small town in Eastern Europe as well as losing his wife to cancer he travels to London to find work. He leaves his mother and young daughter at their home. He struggles as an immigrant to safe money to send back home. He soon finds a place to live and a job washing dishes in the kitchen of a fancy restaurant where he learns to cook with fresh ingredients. He befriends his landlord whose wife has left him and taken their daughter away. The friendships he makes in Lond...more
I wasn't as into this book as MK was. I enjoyed it, but I would say that this is Meave Binchy with an edge. My main issue was that I did not really care for Lev as he was in so many ways a cipher. Yes, he loved Marina. But did he really love Ina and Maya? There is no tender reunion with Maya after he gets bk to Ukraine, no evidence that they are in any way close, rather more estranged (the absence does not make the heart grow fonder). His love seems to have shifted to his restaurant... (see his ...more
sounds good, too:
In the story of Lev, newly arrived in London from Eastern Europe, Rose Tremain has written a wise and witty book about the contemporary migrant experience.
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...more
In the story of Lev, newly arrived in London from Eastern Europe, Rose Tremain has written a wise and witty book about the contemporary migrant experience.
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...more
This is my second Rose Tremain book and it was completely different from Trespass. It is essentially a book about "belonging" and tells the story of Lev, who leaves his unnamed Eastern European country, his mother and little daughter and best friend Rudi, in search of a good job and a better life in England. Lev is haunted not only be the memory of his wife who has recently died but also by the village he grew up in and the memories it holds. Lev has a rough start in London trying to f...more
oh i did enjoy this and was sad to reach the end
it is a simultaneously feel good and melancholy tale of an east european economic migrant lev and his experiences in contemporary england and his return home afterwards .
it is about ordinary not very successfuk people trying to make their way in life against the odds and in a hostile world they do not control .
i enjoyed the eastern european and dreamy bits the best and Rudi , lev's home buddy is a wonderful character at once cra...more
it is a simultaneously feel good and melancholy tale of an east european economic migrant lev and his experiences in contemporary england and his return home afterwards .
it is about ordinary not very successfuk people trying to make their way in life against the odds and in a hostile world they do not control .
i enjoyed the eastern european and dreamy bits the best and Rudi , lev's home buddy is a wonderful character at once cra...more
Lev leaves his Mother, daughter and best friends in Eastern Europe to travel to London and get work in order to send money home. He gets a job in a kitchen and begins to meet friends and start relationships. When he gets bad news from home he becomes determined to focus all his attention and working hours on creating a dream for himself and those he loves.
I've read quite a few of these imigrant novels recently, and they all follow a similar line. The person arrives with nothing and meets...more
I've read quite a few of these imigrant novels recently, and they all follow a similar line. The person arrives with nothing and meets...more
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Rose Tremain is the author of fifteen works of fiction, including The Road Home, winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, and Restoration, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She lives in Norfolk and north London.
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“When you’re old nobody touches you nobody listens to you—not in this bloody country.so that’s what I do. I touch and I listen.”
—
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“Lev took out a cigarette and stuck it between his lips and the woman sitting next to him a plump contained person with moles like splashes of mud on her face said quickly "I'm sorry but there is no smoking allowed on this bus." Lev knew this had known it in advance had tried to prepare himself mentally for the long agony of it. But even an unlit cigarette was a companion -something to hold on to something that had promise in it -and all he could be bothered to do now was to nod just to show the woman that he'd heard what she'd said reassure her that he wasn't going to cause trouble because there they would have to sit for fifty hours or more side by side with their separate aches and dreams like a married couple. They would hear each other's snores and sighs smell the food and drink each had brought with them note the degree to which each was fearful or unafraid make short forays into conversation. And then later when they finally arrived in London they would probably separate with barely a word or a look walk out into a rainy morning each alone and beginning a new life. And Lev thought how all of this was odd but necessary and already told him things about the world he was traveling to a world in which he would break his back working -if only that work could be found.”
—
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