The Road Home by Rose Tremain.

                   The Road Home by Rose Tremain.

I came across Rose Tremain quite by accident and just wish someone had recommended  her books to me a lot earlier in life. The Road Home portrays the main character Lev, an Eastern European from somewhere such as Poland or Slovakia. We know for certain that his country was a communist one but the writer is vague about his country of origin.

Not to think about it, not to feel inside him the finality of what had happened, that was all he craved now. Nothing else. Nothing beyond or after or yet to come. None of that. Only the feeling of not feeling.

Amongst other things the book relates to displacement and through Lev, Lydia, Vitas and the gay Chinese migrant workers we are made aware of their struggles. That doesn't mean that the native British characters don't feel a similar sense of isolation because some of them do. Ruby, at the old people's home is lonely and feels abandoned by her family and Christy, Lev's landlord suffers depression because his wife has left him and she refuses to let him see Frankie, their daughter. He turns to alcohol.

Lev is a widower with a young daughter he idolises. His wife, Marina died at 36 and his ageing mother Ina looks after Maya whilst Lev seeks his fortune in London. It's a hard decision for him to take and throughout the story we have plenty of contact with his mother, daughter as well as Rudi his feisty friend, a counterpart to Lev all still living in Auror with constant flashbacks or telephone conversations.

For Lev it is a difficult journey away from his family, still grieving over Marina, angry with the Communist regime for running down the economy and allowing the timber mills to close, forcing unemployment and creating financial hardships. That has been the situation for 2 years. I have worked with many Asians who are separated from their families and loved ones in order to find work to support their families in third world and developing countries so I respect and admire their decisions to leave their families in order to do exactly what Lev was trying to do-send money and necessities home and try to save for a better future. It's a big sacrifice to make.
We read so much about immigrants coming to the UK in particular for work who end up claiming benefits for themselves and their families, especially from Eastern Europe. Lev is one of the decent guys, prepared to do anything to make ends meet initially. He is legal and not an asylum seeker although he is constantly facing prejudice and cruelty from British people, physically and mentally.

It was hard to leave his country of origin and he felt bitter. He wanted to become a man-of-the-world, a saviour to his family. When he didn't have the money for accommodation he slept outside. His first job was delivering leaflets for a kebab take-away for £5 but he couldn't live on this meagre amount. With a bit of help from Lydia, a friend, he found a reasonable job in a restaurant and acquired skills he had never had before. Life took on some kind of shape and he became infatuated with Sophie who worked in the same restaurant. Lev needed a replacement wife, someone who loved him and Sophie enjoyed the sex but wasn't wife material. Jealousy turned to rage and inadequacy with the loneliness tearing him apart. A doomed relationship.
 Ina couldn't understand why her son had left: My mother. She doesn't understand that I'm trying so hard for her and Maya. All she says to me, "Lev, come home, come home." But home, why? Nothing there. No work. No life. Only family.

Difficult decisions tearing him apart, plenty of anger and heartache. He is well characterised and we follow his journey supporting him, wanting him to succeed. We learn so much about him and feel respect and admiration, hopeful that he will be able to return to his family and support them. It was a joy to read.

Publisher: Vintage Books.   ISBN: 978-0-099-47846-1

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.

Copyright 2014. Permission must be obtained from the author of this article review before any of it is reproduced.

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