KEY POINTS:
Rose Tremain is one of those authors who isn't afraid to surprise her readers by crossing into other genres. While she is best known for her beautifully written historical novels, her contemporary fiction is just as interesting, including The Road Home.
Like so many Eastern Europeans, Lev is on his way to Britain seeking work. His wife is dead, there is no work in his home town and his future seems as blighted as his country's appears to be.
The novel charts Lev's struggle to establish himself in London. There are setbacks aplenty in work and love, but things are not a relentlessly black. There are some great comic moments in his recollections of his best friend Rudi and his love-hate relationship with his troublesome American Tchevi car.
Ultimately, of course, for Lev and his home country things turn out not to be as bleak as they might have originally seemed. Tremain's portrayal of life in Eastern Europe is vivid and in Lev she has created a character that encapsulates the modern economic migrant experience. She also has a good poke at the absurdities of the modern art and theatre scenes. This thoughtful, witty and often moving book cements her position as one of the UK's classiest writers.
*Chatto & Windus, $36.99
- Detours, HoS
