This post may have affiliate links, meaning every time you click and buy something I receive a small commission with no extra costs to you.
Hi there!
Today I’m back with another review. It’s the only one by Rose Tremain that I have read and I read this book a long time ago, but didn’t remember a bit so I decided to read again. Thank God I did, because even though it’s not on my top 10, it really is a great reading. I don’t even remember when I got it, I know I only got it because I loved its cover. I mean, it is a gorgeous cover. So simple, yet so beautiful. Anyway, let’s go!
The Road Home talks about a man that left his family behind to go to England, looking for a better life.
Memories of his past haunt him and turns his new life into something that confuses him and doesn’t let him be in peace.
In London, Lev learns about the western life and makes him feel like he could live there for the rest of his life.
However, there’s a voice inside his head that makes him ask if he belongs somewhere or if that’s just an illusion.
This book talks about a very important issue: immigration. Lev is natural from the Eastern Europe, a communist country, and when he lives in London, he compares his new life with his past. When the fabric where Lev works closes and he loses his job, he does what most people are doing in real life: he moves to another country to make a better life. He leaves his five year old daughter Maya and his mother Ina behind. And he only does that because he thinks only of them. He discovers how complicated is to be far from those we love and what to do when we feel lonely and with no one around.
On the bus trip to London, he meets Lydia and they begin a weird friendship. I thought Lydia was a very nice woman and I even thought they would start dating. She went to London to get a job as a translator. Actually, they go out a few times after their arrival, but he was a little crazy and it didn’t work out.
When he starts working on a restaurant’s kitchen, he meets Sophie. He says that he’s not ready to date because he lost his wife a while ago, but after Sophie insistence, they start dating. At the beginning I was rooting for them, but they couldn’t trust each other so they just decided to end the relationship.
Honestly, I think Lev is a really weird guy and he has some strange attitudes towards women. But I’m not a forty something year old man with a tough past, living in a foreign country.
Unfortunately, Lev isn’t the only weird here. Sophie decides that a famous, rich artist is better for her than Lev and Lydia seems to think the same. Lydia leaves her job to go around the world with an orchestra conductor as his lover even though she doesn’t love him, only appreciates his friendship.
I think the only character I love from the beginning until the end is Ruby Constad, a really nice lady. We meet her when Lev spends some time in a nursing home with Sophie. Ruby is really sweet and I wished she was real. She adores Lev and helps him when she can.
Near the end of the story, Lev learns about something bad that is about to happen in his village so he kind of lets himself drowning in self pity. He has this Great Idea and he does everything he can to make it true and make his family’s lives better.
I didn’t like the ending because it feels like an open end. And I don’t like open ends. I would love to know if he got a girlfriend, or how his mother dealt with his return. Well, I guess I will never know. I have to be okay with the ending I got 🤷🏻♀️
Although it’s not my favourite book (not even close), I highly recommend it because it talks about important stuff. Read it because it’s a great novel. It even won an award (Orange Prize 2008)!
So, if you have read, tell me your opinion, tell me if you liked or not. If you haven’t, I hope you read and like it!
See you next time!
Chronicles of a booklover girl 