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    The Road Home
    The Road Home
    The Road Home
    Audiobook (abridged)7 hours

    The Road Home

    Written by Rose Tremain

    Narrated by Juliet Stevenson

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008, The Road Home is the best-selling story of Lev, a middle-aged migrant from Eastern Europe, who moves to London in search of work after losing his wife and job. Lev’s London is awash with money, celebrity and complacency. The world Tremain creates is both convincing and poignant.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateFeb 1, 2009
    ISBN9789629548384
    The Road Home

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    Reviews for The Road Home

    4/5

    97 ratings67 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Impossible not to get attached to the protagonist, Lev, who leaves his hometown, young daughter and mother in his East European village where no work is to be found since the local mill has closed down to make his way to London and hopes for prosperity of some form. He finds work in the restaurant business and having made a new friend and a new lover in this big city, dreams up ways to save his loved ones back home. I was worried I wouldn't fall in love with Tremain's contemporary novels the way I've passionately loved her historical fiction (most especially Restoration and Merivel), but needn't have worried: she is a master of prose and has such a deep and special understanding of humanity and its many frailties, that whatever time period she chooses to write about ends up making for timeless stories somehow. 4.5 stars. I would have given it the full 5, only I do strongly favour historical fiction for taking me outside our current world. Should give a special mention to Steven Pacey, who narrates the audio version. His reading was beautifully modulated and he successfully rendered a range of accents and gave each character a marked and fitting personality. Really wonderful when voice narration adds so much to the reading experience.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I found 'Road Home' to be OK, but not great. There were moments in the story where it really flowed and I couldnt put the book down; but structurally, there were too many threads, or perhaps overt devices, and it just wasn't measured. I think there were some really silly sexual scenes, perhaps put in there to appeal to a range of audiences, none that I recall as serving any purpose in advancing the story or building character depth/emotional range. Few of the main characters were sustainably likable (or for that matter unlikeable).I have some reservations in recommending it - though, as mentioned there are slabs of riveting story that maintained my interest for enough for me be interested to find out what happened.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Rose Tremain's [u]The Road Home[/u] was winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for 2008 and shortlisted for the Costa Novel Prize (Whitbread that was). I won't attempt a summary or even a thoughtful look at themes and concerns, but ----- What a lovely, lovely, lovely book! I read it as slowly as I could to savor it. It is such a pleasure to read a piece of serious contemporary fiction that doesn't depend on dysfunction, incest, spouse or child abuse, or psychiatric abnormalities as a springboard to some final life-affirming statement. Lev has his problems, but he is basically a sweet, decent human being and I loved accompanying him on his journey.
    • 5/5
      I think this may be a four star novel, but Juliet Steven's superb narration of this audio version of the novel bumps it up to a five star read! A tale of immigration, yearning for home, and building a life. Rose Tremain writes poignant so very well, and her character, Lev, is someone I will remember for a long time. It can be so complicated to survive!
    • 4/5
      A very good novel about an immigrant to London, chasing life and love and his dreams. It picks up speed as it goes along and ends with a very satisfying conclusion. Well worth your time. I'm glad I read it.
    • 3/5
      After losing his job and his wife, Lev leaves his little daughter with his mother and sets off for London to find work and support his family. By a lucky chance, he meets a woman on the bus who helps him find a job after a brief period of homelessness. Working in the kitchen of an elite restaurant, Lev learns that he loves to cook and carefully observes the chef and other workers to glean their skills. Through a relationship with his co-worker and a path to success in his new career, Lev begins to understand the wider world while growing to appreciate and love his home even more.I felt a little uncertain about this book while I was reading it and I still do now. I’m not quite sure how to review it because it’s one of those books that I liked but didn’t really like that much. The best part, clearly, was Lev’s sense of accomplishment and his ambition once he realized what he really wanted out of his life. I love to read about ambitious, goal-oriented, determined people. Obviously life gets in the way sometimes, but I can identify with them the best. Unfortunately, however, Lev also seems to have a somewhat ignorant or cruel streak towards women. He does not want a relationship after his wife, so he rebuffs one woman, but then he finds another, decides he’s in love with her, and ends up treating her quite badly when things don’t end the way he expects. The girl is partly at fault for leading him on, but all of his relationships with women bothered me.I did like the entire theme of home running through this novel. Even when Lev makes a groove for himself in London, he still misses the people and the place that is his home. Eventually he realizes that it’s the people and not the place itself, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to do his best for his home country and making a difference for his family. The title is really well chosen; even though Lev starts out leaving home, the entire novel is at the core about his journey returning and how he’s going to get there as a more successful man than when he left.I’m still a little on the fence about whether to recommend this book or not. It is one of those difficult reads that falls in the middle, that I know I’m supposed to love but I didn’t manage it. I think if this review intrigues you, the book is probably still worth investigating.
    • 4/5
      A beautifully written book filled with compassion. It is a bit of a fairy tale, but the pathos with which it is told makes it a wonderful adventure. I also loved the narrator. Often audio books are made or destroyed by the narrator. This time it adds an enormous amount of value.
    • 4/5
      This is a terrific story, gripping from start to finish, touching, heartwarming and refreshingly devoid of too much trauma. BUT ... it struck me as a curious winner of the Orange Prize for Women's fiction. It's a book that doesn't seem to like women.Its focus is Eastern European immigrant, Lev. Lev is a modestly heroic figure, stoical, determined and, ultimately, capable of transforming his life and the lives of those around him. Ruggedly good looking, he clearly represents a figure attractive to Tremain's largely female readership. In his isolation and loneliness as he comes to London looking for work, he is there to be mothered/ loved. The only problem is, the quality of the women with whom he comes into contact. Lydia, fellow Eastern European whom he sits next to on the journey to England, is physically unattractive, with too many moles on her face. In the choices she makes later in the novel she comes close to prostituting herself. The young woman with whom he has a relationship later in the book makes a similar choice: in one disturbing scene she comes across as deserving of virtually being raped by Lev. The only woman good enough for him, it seems, is his dead wife, Marina. Even she may no longer be good enough. Towards the end of the novel he meets a woman strikingly similar to Marina but rejects her too, because she is not what he needs in this phase of his life.Early in the novel, Lev eats dinner as the guest of a middle-class couple in Muswell Hill. They have no link to him other than that he sat on the bus next to Lydia, who is a friend of theirs. The woman in this house takes pity on Lev and happily lets him stay overnight, sensing he has been sleeping rough. Here is the one woman deserving of Lev and, it seems, of the novel's approval: the liberal N. London reader of Tremain's fiction, someone who can help out the Levs of this world but who can ultimately withdraw back into her own space and have nothing to do with him. Enjoy him in a book, unlike all that other vulgar bunch.Gosh! More a criitique than a review. Good read, though.
    • 4/5
      This book was a surprise as I really didn't enjoy reading one of Rose Tremain's other books, 'The Colour'. So it was with trepidation that I started this novel. It was good to see it bang up to date and quite topical in its subject matter. The novel centres around Lev, who has left his eastern European country to come to London in search of work. He finds it very difficult to get established due to language barriers and a sheer lack of knowledge about how to organise accommodation and work. The downside of this novel for me was how badly he was accepted by most people. This wouldn't have surprised me for some places in the UK but not in London where surely there is such a rich mixture of cultures. It was interesting to see Lev's journey unfold for the reader, at the same time as it was unfolding for Lev. Joining in his highs and lows, experiencing my own country from a stranger's perspective. I don't know why his country was put down so much in the novel, even though we were taken there a lot through telephone calls I felt I would've liked to have experienced it more. I can't imagine that the people who were involved in Lev's life would do this and I feel this was a slight mistake on the author's behalf. The characters were overall well-written, I could imagine most of them but I couldn't always imagine how Lev was feeling; especially in the early parts of the novel before he got himself sorted with a room to live in. The plot is very topical and bang up to date, which was (as mentioned) a refreshing change after reading a novel that I disliked so much. The downside of the novel was it's length and in some parts, lack of emotion. It became repetitive, the reader knew the struggles Lev was going through and some of them seemed to be agonisingly long, when they didn't need to be. I quite liked the ending, it brought a good close to the novel and although predictable from the early stages it still made me smile.
    • 4/5
      Winner of the Orange Braodband prize. A character driven novel, well done. This is the story of an Eastern European man forced to try his luck in London as his hometown withers in the post-communist era. Very well done! Will be trying more of her novels, fast easy reads!
    • 5/5
      I was fortunate enough to stumble across this beautifully written book: a story of loss, loneliness and hope. I loved the characters - even the less-than-lovable ones - and often stayed up reading late into the night. Tremain is truly an exceptional author: one who both can write brilliantly and tell a good story.
    • 4/5
      My first Rose Tremain. Really enjoyed and will be reading more from her collection.
      Feeling sad.
    • 5/5
      Lev is 43 years old and forced to leave his rural East European town to seek work in London. He has been widowed (his young wife Marina having died from Leukemia) and must support his daughter Maya and his elderly mother who remain behind in Russia. Lev barely speaks English and is at first bewildered by London. But Lydia, a woman he meets on the train, helps him find a job working in a posh restaurant where he meets the sexy Sophie. Lev eventually finds lodging with an Irishman named Christy Slane who is also experiencing loss.Lev’s story is painful at times. He misses Marina - cannot seem to get past the loss of her - and struggles to save money to send home to his daughter and mother. His future seems hopeless and he misses his country and his best friend, Rudi - a gregarious man whose love affair with an American Chevy and his fondness for life make him immediately endearing.Rudi was everything this story made him out to be - and more. He was a force of nature. He was a lightning bolt. He was a fire that never went out. - from The Road Home, page 277 -It is largely Lev’s friendship with men like Christy and Rudi which elevates him past his grief and imbues him with hope. When Lev recalls a hiking trip with Rudi to an isolated cave shortly after Marina’s death, the reader begins to see there will be a future for him after all.It was at this moment - with Rudi halfway up the ladder - that he heard himself whispering to his friend, “Don’t look down…don’t look back…” and he felt that he suddenly understood why Rudi had brought him here and that the thing he had to embrace was the idea of perseverance. - from The Road Home, page 127 -The Road Home is a character driven novel about loss and identity. It is a novel which reminds the reader that the past must sometimes be left behind in order to move forward. Dreams are the fuel for overcoming obstacles in this story of a man who must leave his home in order to find it again. Lev is a dreamer and a romantic. He is a character who readers want to see succeed, a man whose flaws are surpassed by his kind and vulnerable heart.Rose Tremain has yet to disappoint me - I’ve read Music and Silence and The Colour and found them both outstanding. Tremain’s novels are written with sensitivity and insight into the human condition - and The Road Home is perhaps her finest work. This novel won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2008.Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      This is the first of Rose Tremain's books that I've read, and all I can say is I wish I'd discovered her before now!

      The Road Home is beautifully written, with elegant prose, and a marvelous sense of time and place. I thought that all of the characters were believable and their motivations understandable. The central character, Lev, challenges the reader to set aside easy stereotypical notions of eastern European immigrants. The sense of place and time was spot-on and I was hooked on the book from page 1.

      A page-turner with heart and sole, that I am so glad I read. Well deserving of its 5 stars.
      © Koplowitz 2010
    • 4/5
      I was a bit disappointed with it, I think because I'd been expecting great things from Tremain and I don't think it was up to that level. The story follows Lev, from an unidentified Eastern European country, who comes to London to find work and send money back home to his mother and daughter after his wife dies. At first he is totally disorientated in the city, has to sleep rough and his first "job" involves delivering leaflets for £5 a day. But he finds his feet, improves (dramatically!) his circumstances and eventually returns home. Some parts seemed very authentic - the descriptions of London during a hot summer's day, the treatment of immigrants, the confusion that is London if you don't know it, are a few examples, but Lev seemed unrealistically lucky. He definitely fell on his feet, in what seemed an unlikely way. I'm not sure that it is a story of a typical immigrant's stay in the UK, although I'm not sure if there's such a thing as a "typical immigrant" anyway! It was very readable though it's not the sort of book I'd end up staying up all night just to finish, but reading it wasn't a chore
    • 2/5
      At the start of The Road Home, Lev has boarded a bus from his Eastern European village where the main employer has closed down. With the expansion of the EU, he is travelling to the UK ("I am legal" is one of the English phrases he has committed to memory) in order to earn money for his mother and his daughter (his wife has recently died of leukaemia). In London, he encounters much that is unfamiliar, but also begins to build friendships, particularly with Lydia, a compatriot he met on the bus, and his Irish landlord Christy, whose ex-wife is preventing him having access to their child.The touching relationship between these two lonely men, both missing their daughters but wishing to do the best by them, is one of the highlights of the book (at least, of the part I managed to read). There's also a nice thread about language and jargon - Lev has had English lessons before coming to the UK but is baffled by the language of job advertisements and room-for-rent notices, of self-improving business-speak, of the posh restaurant where he gets a job in the kitchen.But. This book was highly praised for giving humanity to the anonymous figure of the immigrant. Christy, too, could be another negative stereotype, the deadbeat dad (before his wife left him he was having trouble finding work, and drinking heavily). They are portrayed very sensitively. But for me, this was totally undermined by the fact that the book didn't bother giving humanity to the vast mass of the English working-class (who are all fat, drunken, incomprehensible and greasy-faced). There are several asides which sound to me much more like a middle-class Englishwoman's reaction to modern Britain than that of a working-class Eastern European man. Most of the speech of the British characters is really tin-eared - which grates even more in comparison to, say, the well-written conversations between Christy and Lev. And it seemed to me there was a lot of lazy stereotyping going on. You can see that from the fact that Christy's ex-wife is now shacked up with an estate agent - easily one of the top five most hated professions in Britain. Oh well, then, we just know we can hate him. Wouldn't it have been more subtle if we could have had sympathy for Christy's wife as well? If she had been someone who left him because she couldn't stand the fact that he kept coming home incoherent and throwing up on the hall carpet, but ended up with someone who loved her and was able to care for her and her child? I don't think that would necessarily have made Christy's character any less sympathetic. I know a lot of people have rated this book very highly, and I really, really, really did try. I kept picking it up for another go, but inevitably, after a really moving piece, I would come to something which made me roll my eyes and grind my teeth, and, y'know, that's not really what I look for in my reading. So, onto the 'abandoned' pile it goes.
    • 5/5
      This was an amazing audio. In a small way I was reminded of how I felt as I listened to The Help, one of my favorite audios last year. Lev just grows on you as the man that he is--intent on being the best that he can be to help his family and in the process he develops an array of friendships/relationships and a wonderful dream. The complexity of the life he leads in trying to obtain his basic needs is emotionally beautiful as well as exhausting. Because the novel takes past in this century it is haunting -- the life he leads is in many ways no different than the life he would have led a hundred years ago, and the problems of being an immigrant are compounded now by suspicions and mistrust of anyone who is different--no matter how that difference manifests itself----one example being his middle-eastern friend and former employer describing the problems his fast food restaurant is having trying to stay open. I'm looking forward to reading/listening to other books by this author.
    • 4/5
      Loved this book you felt Lev's homesickness at every turn of this book...great reading.
    • 5/5
      The Road Home, which was released yesterday, August 26, has already been awarded the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. Sometimes I read a book that has won a prestigious award and I come away wondering why it won, or I may understand why, but award or no, I just didn't like the book. Not so with The Road Home. It is completely deserving of the Orange Prize and I loved every page of it.Rose Tremain has given us a poignant, perfectly crafted novel. It is beautifully written. The plot ambles along at a relaxed and steady pace, but never once did I lose interest. I attribute this to two things. First, the compelling characters and Tremain's ability to draw the reader in, to make us emotionally invested in what happens to these rather ordinary people.Lev ... I really liked this guy. And by the book's end, I knew him so well. Lev's journey to London and the life he lived there made the immigrant experience so real. The competing cacophony of emotions: he was hopeful, overwhelmed, frustrated, angry, sad, at one point blissfully in love. He felt he was betraying those he left behind just by being in London, even though he was there to make life better for them; if he enjoyed life in his temporary city, he felt guilty. I felt Lev's frustration with the language barrier. Reading about how he was treated as somehow inferior just because he dressed differently, had different mannerisms, struggled to understand and make himself understood made my heart break with sympathy.There were other characters who I grew to care about, and surprisingly most were men. I sometimes find it difficult to warm to adult male characters. But in this case, I quickly came to adore Rudi, Lev's brash and reckless, yet big-hearted old friend and Christy Slane, Lev's sweet, easygoing, down on his luck London flatmate. The second thing that stands out about this novel are the descriptions of the two central places: London and the unnamed Eastern European country Lev comes from. The richly textured images Tremain so masterfully creates stand alone, but are especially meaningful when viewed in contrast. Lev's home country, struggling to feel hopeful after the fall of communism seemed bleak, faded, gray, sadly downtrodden. London, a frenzied melting pot, at times glamorous and sophisticated, at others gritty and ordinary, but always colorful and alive. The characters and images in this highly readable, exquisitely written book will remain with me long after I turned the last page.
    • 3/5
      Most reviewers seem to comment on how they came to love the main character, Lev, the UK immigrant who makes good, goes home, and lives happily ever after. I have to say that to some extent I agree with them (although his treatment of ex-girlfriend Sophie is abhorrent). The character of Lev and his development through the book is the strong part of the novel. On the other hand, the plot is a bit predictable and certainly the ending is a weak part. The major problem with this book is that believability has been sacrificed on the alter of romance. It's almost as though Tremain is writing a script for a feel-good movie.
    • 5/5
      Lev has little hope of making a living in the destitution of his broken Eastern European homeland. His only hope is to support his family from afar. This immigration story was set mostly in London, which was fitting because London is known as a melting pot of cultures, and Lev meets and is helped by people from Qatar, Ireland, China, India, and Greece. He arrives underfunded and with no job; however, his biggest asset is himself and his dreams. Lev is driven by the "idea that you could make some kind of mark, that through the slowly accumulating weeks and months you would somehow become the kind of person you might stop to admire." (282)Lev is a man to admire. He's a decent man who makes a few bad decisions but has the integrity to feel remorse about them. Ms. Tremain has created a character that seemed genuine to me, and she surrounds him with other equally developed and memorable characters. I became emotionally invested in Lev's journey through his extreme concern for his life back home, through the pain of making new friends and the difficulty of learning new skills that lead to his Great Idea. He is guided by his memories, his deep love of family and friends, and even the words of Hamlet - "words written long long ago that could travel beside you and help you at moments when you could no longer see the road." (352)This is my second book by Rose Tremain. She is quickly becoming one of my favorite and seemingly most versatile authors. I highly recommend this touching, well-told saga that combines comedy and tragedy in a memorable story of struggle about achieving one's dreams.
    • 4/5
      I loved this, couldn't believe how the author could make a lonely, poverty-stricken immigrant so sympathetic and compelling. Beautifully balanced, the main character is far from perfect, you really feel his alienation. London and the people he meets there are convincingly drawn.
    • 4/5
      Modern day protagonist Lev, leaves his home in Eastern Europe to find work in London, so he can send money home to his mother and daughter. His dead wife Marina haunts his dreams. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be in a foreign country with no money and speaking very little of the language, Lev's story spells it out as we follow him through his 18 month trial. The woman who sits next to him on the bus across Europe, Lydia, befriends him, then is disappointed that he doesn't respond to her romantic advances. At any rate, she helps him out of many situations and helps him find his first real job. There he falls for Sophie, who is the salad chef while he is the dishwasher. We follow him as he works his way up to salad chef, then Sophie dumps him and he loses his job and ends up going north to work on a vegetable farm picking asparagus. Here he develops his big dream in life, the thing he's been searching for: he will return to his home when he's saved up enough money to open a restaurant of his own. Back drop to all this is the development of Lev's friend back home, Rudy; his landlord, Christy Slane; JK Ashe, his first boss; the people at the nursing home; the Chinese boys on the farm and the underlying theme, Lev's home village will be underwater because the government is building a reservoir to bring much needed uninterrupted electricity to the area. Tremain produces a fantastic read.
    • 4/5
      The Road Home was the Orange Prize winning novel by Rose Tremain – a story of Lev, a Russian immigrant living in London. Lev immigrated to Britain after the mill in his village closed, leaving him without a means to support his mother and daughter. The decision to leave his family was a hard one, but soon Lev discovered that his journey to survive in London would be even harder.Lev’s journey led him to a renowned restaurant where he discovered two newfound passions: cooking and Sophie. Lev watched as the chefs prepared their meals, learning every ounce in hopes that he too would become a chef. Sophie worked in the kitchen, and with her, Lev learned that he could feel love and passion again as he dealt with the sudden death of his wife, Marina.The Road Home superbly discussed the hardships and the making of one’s way in a new country. It also dealt with the themes of home. “Home is where you heart is,” as the saying goes, but it also is where you are at that moment, even if it’s a temporary arrangement. The most profound aspect of The Road Home for me was the excellent characterization created by Tremain. Lev was so human – fallible one minute, honorable the next. Filled with selfishness and then selflessness, he was the type of guy you could root for, despite his mistakes. Other male characters also livened up the story. Rudi, Lev’s best friend in Russia, was funny, rude and vulnerable, dependent on Lev’s admiration and friendship to help him live a better life. Christy was Lev’s landlord – a high-spirited Irish man, suffering from a divorce and the custodial loss of his daughter. It was a delight to read about such interesting men – they really made this story.This is my second Tremain book, and while I enjoyed The Colour a little more, The Road Home was smart and provocative with memorable characters. I would highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy a good character-driven story, and I look forward to reading more from this talented storyteller.
    • 5/5
      Captivating and expressively read. Hard to predict. Interesting twists and turns in the plot
    • 3/5
      Explores the experience of moving to a new place, being new to a culture and coping with everything that is alien to you.
    • 5/5
      Possibly the best book I've read in 2008. Immigrant experience and likeable characters. Main character Lev, never gives up and achieves his dream of returning home with money to support his daughter. Sets up a stylish restaurant in what was once a backwater. Subtly drawn.5 stars
    • 4/5
      Excellent evocation of England through the eyes of an immigrtant worker. A satisfying read.
    • 5/5
      Rose Tremain has been on my "authors I really ought to check out" radar for ages and I have finally got around to reading one of her books. It won't be the last. I loved this. Lev travels from Poland to London to make money to send back to his mother and daughter at home. From the title you know he is eventually going to make it 'home' but you know neither where this will be or what will happen and the tale didn't unfold in any way I thought it would. The story is more about the journey than the destination. There are certainly sad and nasty bits to the book but Tremain's talent is to make it mostly a happy read even when Lev is fighting his own demons. A great character study I guess.
    • 4/5
      In The Road Home, Lev, an immigrant to England from an unnamed Eastern European country, learns to stop worrying, to stop being so lonely, and to start following his dreams. I enjoyed this book, although I found it a slow read. I was not convinced by the plot elements that required every unattached female character to fall in love with Lev. Nonetheless, I recommend this novel to those who enjoy character-driven narratives.