Going Home: One of the Observer's Debut Novels of 2024
'A spirit-lifting debut'
DAVID MITCHELL'I will never forget these characters: so pained and funny, so brilliantly drawn, wrestled with and forgiven'HELEN GARNER'Meltingly warm'OBSERVERLocal boy Teo Erskine is back in the north London suburb of his youth, visiting his father - stubborn, selfish, complicated Vic. Things have changed for Teo: he's got a steady job, a brand-new car and a London flat all concrete and glass, with a sliver of a river view. Except, underneath the surface, not much has changed at all. He's still the boy seeking his father's approval; the young man playing late-night poker with his best friend, unreliable, infuriating Ben Mossam; the one still desperately in love with the enigmatic Lia Woods. Lia's life, on the other hand, has been transformed: now a single mum to two-year-old Joel, she doesn't have time for anyone - not even herself.When the unthinkable happens, Joel finds himself at the centre of an odd constellation of men - Teo, Vic, Ben - none of whom is fully equipped to look after him, but whose strange, tentative attempts at love might just be enough to offer him a new place to call home.Tom Lamont is an award-winning journalist. In 2015, he became one of the founding writers on the Guardian's Long Read desk and since 2017 he has been a regular correspondent for American GQ. He lives in north London with his wife and two children. Going Home is his first novel.
Author: Tom Lamont
Format: Hardback, 320 pages, 158mm x 236mm, 525 g
Published: 2024, Hodder & Stoughton, United Kingdom
Genre: General & Literary Fiction
'A spirit-lifting debut'
DAVID MITCHELL'I will never forget these characters: so pained and funny, so brilliantly drawn, wrestled with and forgiven'HELEN GARNER'Meltingly warm'OBSERVERLocal boy Teo Erskine is back in the north London suburb of his youth, visiting his father - stubborn, selfish, complicated Vic. Things have changed for Teo: he's got a steady job, a brand-new car and a London flat all concrete and glass, with a sliver of a river view. Except, underneath the surface, not much has changed at all. He's still the boy seeking his father's approval; the young man playing late-night poker with his best friend, unreliable, infuriating Ben Mossam; the one still desperately in love with the enigmatic Lia Woods. Lia's life, on the other hand, has been transformed: now a single mum to two-year-old Joel, she doesn't have time for anyone - not even herself.When the unthinkable happens, Joel finds himself at the centre of an odd constellation of men - Teo, Vic, Ben - none of whom is fully equipped to look after him, but whose strange, tentative attempts at love might just be enough to offer him a new place to call home.Tom Lamont is an award-winning journalist. In 2015, he became one of the founding writers on the Guardian's Long Read desk and since 2017 he has been a regular correspondent for American GQ. He lives in north London with his wife and two children. Going Home is his first novel.