Rose Tremain is known for her sympathetic treatment of ordinary people experiencing isolation, loneliness, and loss. The lutenist in Music and Silence (2000) yearns hopelessly for the woman he loves; the courtier in Restoration (1989) feels that he cannot survive the loss of his place at court; and the immigrants in The Colour (2003) find themselves alone and adrift in their new country. In The Road Home, Tremain tells the story of a man who enters a world of strangers in order to provide for those he loves.
The novel begins on a bus from Eastern Europe to London. Lev begins talking to Lydia, a woman from his country who happens to be sitting next to him. Lev’s home is in the little village of Auror, he explains, but he had been working at a sawmill in the nearby town of Baryn. When the sawmill closed, he could not find another job. Therefore, he decided to go to London, where he was certain that he could earn enough to support his family, which, since his wife Marina had died recently, now consists only of Ina, his mother, and Maya, his five-year-old daughter. After the bus arrives in London, Lydia and Lev part company, but she has given him her telephone number in case he finds that he needs help. It is not long before Lev realizes that the money he has brought with him will not last long. The one job he finds—delivering leaflets for a friendly Arab—pays so little that he cannot afford to rent a room. Dragging his bag of belongings, he sleeps in doorways, hoping that no one will tell him to move on. Cold, filthy, and dizzy from hunger, Lev decides to call Lydia. Though she is staying with friends, she arranges for them to take him in, and from that time on, his life changes for the better.
With Lydia’s help, Lev finds a place to live, a room in the apartment of Christy Slane, an Irish plumber. Lev also gets a job as a kitchen porter in an upscale restaurant. His industry so impresses G. K. Ashe, the temperamental chef and owner, that he promotes Lev to vegetable preparation. Lev seizes this opportunity to learn all that he can about cooking and restaurant management. Meanwhile, he embarks on a passionate affair with Sophie, another restaurant worker. Through her, he meets the elderly residents of Ferndale Heights, where Sophie volunteers on Sundays. One of the more difficult residents, Ruby Constad, becomes especially fond of Lev. Unfortunately, as soon as G. K. finds out about Lev’s affair with Sophie, he fires Lev, explaining that he does not approve of romantic involvements in the workplace. Lev’s next job is as an asparagus picker in Suffolk. It is there that he has an epiphany: He will save his money, return to Baryn, and open up a restaurant. Back in London, he starts working two jobs, cooking both at Ferndale and at a Greek restaurant. A generous gift from Mrs. Constad helps Lev to attain his financial goal, and at the end of the novel, he is back in Baryn as the proprietor of a successful restaurant.
Though almost all these events take place in England, and primarily in London, The Road Home gives the impression of having not just one setting but two. In his dreams and in his reveries, Lev re-creates his courtship and his happy life with Marina, and in his nightmares, he watches helplessly as those he loves face some peril from which he cannot save them. In his wanderings around London, he is always looking for something he can buy to send to his daughter Maya, for though it saddens him to hear how much she misses him, he also worries that she will forget him. Even though the money he sends home constitutes his mother’s primary means of support, Ina is too negative by nature or perhaps just too defeated by life to appreciate the sacrifices Lev is making or to encourage him in his efforts. Instead, whenever he telephones her, she voices her complaints about whatever gift he has sent her, tells him how miserable Maya is without him, and, evidently incapable of understanding that he went to England in order to support her and his daughter, insists on his coming home.
It is hardly surprising that instead of telephoning his mother, Lev sometimes chooses to call Rudi, his best friend back home. Lev, who has always considered himself a passive person, admires Rudi for his energetic nature. Moreover, unlike Ina, Rudi is an inveterate optimist. Some of the funniest scenes in the novel involve Rudi and the “Tchevi” that he bought, evidently untroubled by the fact that the only vehicle he had ever driven was a heavy hauler at the sawmill. Rudi is confident that he can drive the car home, and indeed he does, though he later admits to Lev that the car is defective because it keeps bumping into things. Whenever he telephones Rudi, Lev is likely to hear the latest development in the Tchevi saga. Rudi fell in love with the Tchevi at first sight, despite such obvious defects as faulty doors and four bald tires. However, he did have in mind a practical use for the vehicle, and with it he actually begins to operate his own taxi service. Unfortunately, the Tchevi develops one serious flaw after another, a broken-down transmission, for example, and finally Rudi has to report to Lev that he is out of business. The demise of his beloved Tchevi, along with the news that Auror is to be flooded when a new dam is built, puts the once-irrepressible Rudi into a state of despair. Ironically, this time it is Lev who rescues Rudi. Back in Baryn,
Lev transmits his new confidence to Rudi, with the result that Rudi becomes his old, optimistic self again, as well as an invaluable employee in the new restaurant.
Throughout most of The Road Home, the mere mention of Rudi suggests that what follows will be comic in tone. However, other segments of the novel are clearly satirical. Functioning as a naïve foreign observer, Lev finds that the London he had thought of as a promised land is shockingly hostile to immigrants. Instead of bringing him the warm welcome he had anticipated, his foreign accent makes him an object of suspicion. Thus he is stopped and cross-examined by policemen and ordered off the premises when he accidentally ventures into a private park where children are playing. To Lev, the British seem to be a people obsessed with money and status, ready to condemn a stranger for any misstep. When his cell phone rings at a concert of Edward Elgar’s music to which Lydia has taken him, the audience reacts so angrily that Lev rushes out and, to Lydia’s dismay, does not return. However, while mistreatment by strangers is distressing, what most seems to support Lev’s negative impression of the British is his experience with Sophie. At first, she seems truly attached to Lev, but as soon as she has a chance, she deserts him for a celebrity and the glittering, amoral world in which the celebrity lives.
Whenever an author utilizes the device of the fictitious foreign observer, the implication is that the observer’s impressions have a considerable degree of validity. Through Lev, Tremain points out some serious defects in her society. In addition, the fact that Lev survives and eventually succeeds is due in large part to the kindness of people who have no connection to him. Admittedly, Lydia is at least from the same country as Lev, though she did not know him until they met on the bus. Early on, she is evidently attracted to Lev, but after he rejects her sexual overtures, she continues to be concerned about his welfare. It is true that when Lev turns to Lydia for the money he needs to finance his restaurant, she turns him down, but by that time her own situation has changed, and her refusal on that one occasion does not diminish her importance in his life. Another chance acquaintance who helps to make Lev feel less alone in London is his Irish landlord, Christy. Christy has his own problems: His wife, who has left him, makes it difficult for him to see their young daughter, whom he adores. Christy’s situation makes him uniquely able to sympathize with Lev, who misses Maya so much. Even Ashe, the restaurant owner who fires Lev, plays an important part in Lev’s success. Not only does he learn to cook by working for Ashe, but when Lev
decides to open his own restaurant, Ashe helps him with the practical details, such as working out lists of the equipment that must be purchased and figuring out how much Lev must save up for his initial investment. Lev’s chance contacts with the crotchety residents of Ferndale Heights also turn out to be beneficial. Their enthusiastic response to the meals he plans and cooks helps him develop confidence in his culinary skills as well as in his ability to run a kitchen and even to manage a restaurant. Though he appreciates the residents’ praises, Lev does not expect anything more substantial from them than his wages; Mrs. Constad’s generous gift to him, which is totally unexpected, is still another proof that despite Lev’s first impressions, there are people in England who have open minds and kind hearts.
With its dual settings and its variations in tone, The Road Home is a more complex book than it might at first appear to be. However, this reflects the author’s intent to explore all the ramifications of the immigrant experience and of the nature of human connections. Tremain’s skill in creating believable characters and in developing realistic incidents, along with her intellectual honesty, are again evident in this award-winning novel.