Roses and The Road Home

I’ve just finished The Road Home, by Rose Tremain. This moving book won the Orange prize, deservedly so. It’s the well-researched story of a stout-hearted underdog, an Eastern European worker, who has come to England to make money to support his family back home. Struggling with the confusing world he finds here, starting in an expensive B&B in Earls Court. he takes a variety of low paid jobs, but finally makes enough to find his way. It’s written in a remarkably convincing and sympathetic manner – at times tragic, at times comic, but ultimately cheering, with a tilt at some of the horrors of fashionable London and other less appealing aspects of British culture. I strongly recommend it.
Rose Tremain said: "I believe that when we think about people in a collective way – as, for instance, 'immigrants, 'foreigners', 'outsiders' etc – we tend to lack empathy with them and, almost invariably, to see their contribution to our society in a negative light. But the moment we become engaged with an individual story, empathy arrives and our attitudes alter."

A good review in the Guardian here but googling the book will bring up plenty more.