The Road Home: From the Sunday Times bestselling author

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Informal language is language that is not perceived to be grammatically correct, whilst formal language is the standard form. On his interminable bus journey across Europe, bound for London, Lev practises his English: 'Excuse me for troubling you.' 'Do you have anything you could give me?' 'I am legal.' Lev's home country has just entered the EU and now he, like so many others, is heading west. His wife, Marina, has died of leukaemia, his five-year-old daughter, Maya, is living with her grandmother and 42-year-old Lev, a former lumberyard worker, now one of Eastern Europe's long-term unemployed, is travelling to London to find work. There he meets Sophie, who works in the kitchen at the restaurant and they embark on a tempestuous relationship. She reawakens his sexual desires, which had lain dormant since the death of his wife. She is staying with friends, who agree to shelter Lev. They help Lev find a room in an apartment. His new landlord, Christy Slane, is another immigrant—this time from Ireland—and a plumber. Christy has lost his wife and can rarely see his daughter. He is sliding into alcoholism. Christy and Lev soon become firm friends.

The Road Home - Rose Tremain

Discuss the ways in which the transformations in Lev, after his experiences in England, make his homecoming both challenging and productive. 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. Yes, he is the stereotypical hard worker, starting off as the humblest kitchen pot washer in London's fine dining kitchens, which we can tell straightaway will go on to better things, but there are also some truly nasty aspects to the man, like the rape of his former girlfriend - although here Tremain cannot hold steady, and Lev is so regretful and self-conscious of his misdeed so as to make it hardly believable in the first place.There is so much in the media about immigration these days, sadly, much of it giving a very negative view, and quoting soulless numbers and statistics, but how often do we get to meet the people who make up those numbers? Brownrigg, Sylvia (9 June 2007). "No place like home | Books". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 April 2022 . Retrieved 7 November 2008. It is interesting how Tremain connects the idea of the present (of ‘sleeping’) with the past (Lev’s father). exampractice

The Road Home: From the Sunday Times bestselling author

P.406 "In Lev's kitchen - his adored domain - the gas flames burned an obedient blue, leaped to yellow on sudden, triumphant command; the salamanders glowed and shimmered to violent vulcan red. And the sight of all this rainbow heat could often wake in Lev a feeling of joy as absolute as anything he'd ever felt. Because he'd mastered it. At long last in his life, these roaring, unquantifiable wonders had become obedient to his will."By the time the happy ending rolled around, I wasn't rooting for the main character anymore. It would be one thing if we were meant to feel conflicted by Lev's behavior, but the book makes it pretty clear that Lev is supposed to be the hero. Flawed, maybe, but in an "aren't we all" sort of way. Unfortunately, I lost all empathy the minute he described the woman he potentially assaulted as "his animal" with "irresistible greed for the male..." The main character in this book may be a fictional representation of one of these people, but he feels real and believable, and I became very invested in his story....the author made me care about him, and feel the emotions he was feeling....... For a writer more accustomed to the distant past of the historical novel, the story of a modern-day economic migrant is a bold move, but Rose Tremain does not disappoint. The Road Home is thematically rich, dealing with loss and separation, mourning and melancholia, and what might underlie the ostensibly altruistic act of moving to another country to earn money for one's family. As always, her writing has a delicious, crunchy precision: plants sold in a market are 'fledgling food'; winter is described as having a 'deep, purple cold'; new buds on larch trees are 'a pale dust, barely visible to the eye'." - The Guardian (UK). He then gets a job in a restaurant (is this the restaurant of Gordon Ramsey?) and works his way up from washer to salad prep chef. He also starts a relationship with Sophie.

The Road Home - Penguin Books UK

In a fairy tale experience, Lev dreams of opening his own restaurant in his home town - which is no under threat from a dam being built. Eventually, the actions of his good deads (helping out at an old peoples home) get him in a position where he can earn enough money to return and live his dream. As he catches his own reflection in the window, Lev thinks about how he had avoided seeing his reflection since Marina’s death, not wanting to face himself for the guilt of having stayed alive despite the death of his beloved wife. Lydia asks him what kinds of work he can do, and he answers that he will do any work available, as he has a family waiting at home who needs the money to survive. England is his hope.Lev arrives in a dusty, midsummer city full of hope but things, however, do not start well. He suddenly realises that the money that he had saved to live off until he found work is nowhere near enough. In fact his first night in the city, spent in an Earl's Court B&B costs him what he had expected to last him a week. The next day he gets a 'job' delivering leaflets for a kebab shop, for which he's paid 2p a leaflet and sleeps on the street Newcomer Lev's mobile phone rings during the opening of a fancy classical concert; he runs away. Mortifyingly idiotic. In this instance, the central character is Lev, an unemployed father from eastern Europe, who travels to London to seek work. Through Lev's eyes, we get a chillingly accurate view of London through the eyes of a newly arrived, modern-day economic migrant, and it's not pretty. Readers will become totally involved with his story, as he struggles with the mysterious rituals of “Englishness,” and the fashions and fads of the London scene. We see the road Lev travels through Lev’s eyes, and we share his the intimacy of his friendships, old and new; his joys and sufferings; his aspirations and his hopes of finding his way home, wherever home may be. London is nothing like Lev imagined it would be before he came. He finds few friends and allies among British people. But he is helped and befriended by other migrants, recent and not so recent.

The Road Home by Rose Tremain | Goodreads

At another point we're introduced to two gay Chinese men, who are portrayed as incredibly feminine and childish. The childish part is what bothered me. They seduce Lev while he's drunk, insisting that they're providing a service, just helping him out, giving sexual favors to make Lev feel better. Their touch is described as "like a girls", and when Lev leaves them, he cuddles them "like children" and thanks them for their services. The whole thing just felt very predatory and creepy. Lev is thrust into the world of Sophie’s friends, who are incredibly successful playwrights and artists. His angry and violent reaction to a play about incest by one of Sophie’s friends leads to the end of both his relationship and his job at the restaurant. As well as sending money home, Lev regularly calls his old friend Rudi, a taxi driver, who fills Lev in on developments in their struggling home country. Lev begins to dream of returning with enough money and Western knowledge to transform his small village.Yes,' said Lev. 'By dawn we were there. We were pretty tired. Well, we were very tired. And the gas tank was almost empty. That car's so greedy it's going to bankrupt Rudi.' This extract is the start of the novel. Lev is on a bus from Eastern Europe to London. He is alone in the beginning but then he starts talking to Lydia, who is sat next to him. Lev tells us about his unemployment and that he decided to go to London to support his family. context Rose Tremain was born in 1943, London. She is famous for writing short-stories and television/radio scripts. She is a historical novelist and she enjoys the writing of William Golding (‘Lord of the Flies’). language He is a haunted character, passionate and selfish and very human. He doesn't act as he should sometimes, specially where women are concerned, and his flaws are exactly what make him such a believable character. So imperfect but so dear to the reader.