About this title: 'On the coach, Lev chose a seat near the back and he sat huddled against the window, staring out at the land he was leaving ...' Lev is on his way to Britain to seek work, so that he can send money back to Eastern Europe to support his mother and little daughter. 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 dilemmas: the intimacy of his friendships, old and new; his joys and sufferings; his aspirations and his ...
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date Published: 2008-07-22
ISBN-13:9780099478461ISBN:0099478463
Description: Good. Spine creasing, minor edge wear. A nice copy. NOT an ex-library book; no publisher's remainder marks. Military (APO/FPO) orders are welcomed-Thank you for your service. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780099478461ISBN:0099478463
Description: Good. The cover is casualty. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Date Published: 2009-05-21
ISBN-13:9780316002622ISBN:0316002623
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780316002622. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780316002622ISBN:0316002623
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: New. A Brand New Copy. Never Read. Buy with confidence from an Independent Bookstore where the owners, a husband and wife team, have over 30 years of combined bookselling experience. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown & Co, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780316002615ISBN:0316002615
Description: Hardcover. Near fine. Lev moves from Eastern Europe to London after his wife's death, to make a new home for his mother and his daughter. But it's not an easy goal to achieve and he finds himself feeling very homesick... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: VINTAGE Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780099478461ISBN:0099478463
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 384 pages. Lev is on his way to britain to seek work, so that he can send money back to eastern europe to support his mother and little daughter. this book shows readers the struggles that he faces with the rituals of 'englishness', and the fashions and fads of the london scene. (Paperback) read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown & Co
Date Published: 2008-08-26
ISBN-13:9780316002615ISBN:0316002615
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780316002615. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780316002615ISBN:0316002615
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Spoken Word Compact Disc
Publisher: Naxos Audio Books
Date Published: 2009-02-01
ISBN-13:9789626349465ISBN:9626349468
Description: NEW. Spoken Word Compact Disc. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9789626349465. read more
Binding: Audio CD
Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9789626349465ISBN:9626349468
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardback
Publisher: VINTAGE Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780701177935ISBN:0701177934
Description: BRAND NEW HARDBACK. 384 pages. Lev is on his way to britain to seek work, so that he can send money back to eastern europe to support his mother and little daughter. this book presents his story, as he struggles with the mysterious rituals of 'englishness', and the fashions and fads of the london scene. (Hardback) read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 12/06/2008
ISBN-13:9780099478461ISBN:0099478463
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 12/06/2008
ISBN-13:9780099478461ISBN:0099478463
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780099478461ISBN:0099478463
Description: New, Publisher overstock, may have small remainder mark. Excellent condition, never read, purchased from publisher as excess inventory. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780099478461ISBN:0099478463
Description: New, Publisher overstock, may have small remainder mark. Excellent condition, never read, purchased from publisher as excess inventory. read more
"Fiction so convincing that it could be a true story
The journey begins with Lev's bus journey from his home in Poland to the loneliness of impersonal London. Lev is into his early forties, has recently lost his wife to cancer and believes that the only way that he can support his very young daughter and his mother is to find himself a job in London. His life-long friend, who supposedly knows such things, has told Lev that he should be able to get by in London on £20 a week. The truth becomes apparent within 24 hours of his arrival at Victoria Bus Terminus when he finds out how much it's going to cost for one night's B&B.
During the bus journey, Lev has struck up a friendship with a female teacher who already has good contacts in London. Throughout the book, this lady comes to Lev's rescue in times of trouble. Unsurprisingly, finding work is not as easy has Lev had thought it would be. However, following his adventures, with their ups and downs, is an enjoyable ride, liberally splashed with some good humour and many touching moments and reminiscences.
This book will make you laugh and it will make you cry. It will make you think about the society that we live in. It is a wonderful book."
"I tried really hard to like this book. I expected to and then as I read I kept hoping to but in the end I just didn't. It was redeemed by the beautiful writing which I enjoyed but not enough to make me actually like the characters or the story. I found it a bit all over the place. Sophie and then Lydia and then the mom and family back home, then Christy and all the restaurant people. I had a hard time keeping track and getting to know or like any of them in particular. Even Lev, who I tried to sympathize with, felt very difficult to grasp as a personality, he was inconsistent. Sometimes he was a nice guy and then he got violent, or weird, I just felt like she wrote his personality as it fit best with the story she needed to maintain. Overall it was well written, but boring, not terribly thought provoking and inconsistent."
"Although the theme of this novel- an immigrant quixotically flailing to adapt to life in a cold, detached city- is well-trodden territory, Tremain brings an 21st sense and sensibility to these wonderful characters.
Lev, a widower who leaves behind his mother and young daughter in an economically-doomed Eastern European village, does not have to fight the bureaucratic quagmire of his immigrant predecessors (he is, after all, a citizen of the EU), but that does not mean he is welcomed or has an easy time making his way in London. His struggles to pull himself up by those proverbial bootstraps, to create and follow a dream and decide whether it would be best for his family to relocate to the UK or for him to return home with his fortune in British pounds sterling takes the reader through this "year in the life."
Tremain is a tremendous storyteller and crafts a fully-realized man in Lev- I felt great care and empathy for him. Less so for the minor characters-I'm still trying to determine the purpose of Sophie, who was about as interesting as a Neko wafer and at least as vapid, and her weird sexual proclivities. But all in all a tender, funny, hopeful, lovely read. And great bonus of fun for foodies who love to read about the restaurant world!"
"Often I will ride the subway through territory that has been turned into subunits of a foreign country - Littly Italy, China Town etc - and I am left to wonder if this natural drive to the familiar runs counter to why immigrants come here, and what on earth all that means to the kids, and is this a step forward, backward or a necessity? In some ways these musings were addressed in The Road Home, a sensitive and well written tale of a weary man's quest for a decent living in a new land, all the while stumbling his way through it. Lev, whose name seems to be never be pronounced right by the people he meets, is in his early forties and leaves his small daughter behind after losing both his job and his wife in his unnamed country so he can start over. He encounters several colorful characters along the way; Lydia, the sad soul who sits next to him on the bus ride over and always seem to be his lifeline though never his love, Christy, another transplant who has, in his own way, lost his daughter as well, and often the reader is entertained with tales of Rudi, the archetypal best friend whose humor and loyalty leaps off the page vividly. Lev's constant rise and fall was so touching that I look differently at the immigrant struggle than I ever have before. That being said, there were issues I had with the work: 1 - Lev's grasp of English was wholy inconsistent - he seemed to manage fine when it came to romance and friends, then at odd moments the very simplest things failed him - was he an immigrant, or not? 2 - THe refusal to name specifically his country of origin was nice by means of ubiquitous theme, but felt unnatural and forced after a while 3 - Lev himself - you want to like him, you really do - but in many ways he is undeveloped - and at time downright rude and violent - it is unclear what to make of those moments as they are often left without any sort of discussion. His plight carries the story but it still feels empty for his not being very knowable 4 - Her usage of ellipses. On occaison, like everything else, the rare ... can develop drama, but more than once or twice and it starts to feel like a 'cue the music' sort of moment and that very moment is cheapened 5 - The ending. Sorry, I know, I know, we all loooove happy endings - but for a work this real and a concept so true to life, to have it all tie up so neat and tidy at the end was not only super far fetched but a rather trite way to conclude what had been built up - an intensely real dilemma with an utter fantastical ending is imbalanced and dissatsifying All that being said, I loved reading it and felt the work itself easily won four out of five stars while the issues held it from a full five"
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