Going Home: One of the Observer's Debut Novels of 2024

(Hardback)

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Description

'I will never forget these characters: so pained and funny, so brilliantly drawn, wrestled with and forgiven'

HELEN GARNER

Boy-made-good 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.

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 a strange 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.

Reviews

A meltingly warm comedy centred on two old school pals recently turned 30 . . . While the testy male bonds at the book's heart supply plenty of laughter, the book owes its generous humour not to gags, but tone, which gives it an equally light hand with any number of unfunny subjects -- 10 best new novelists for 2024 * Observer *
A poignant yet very funny novel about three men taking turns at shouldering responsibility and shrugging it off, at worrying and causing worry, at giving care and needing it. Tom Lamont writes in clear, swift prose about the power struggles that exist in even the most loving of families and the longest of friendships. A lyrical, hypnotic delight -- Katherine Heiny, author of GAMES AND RITUALS
I will never forget these characters: so pained and funny, so brilliantly drawn, wrestled with and forgiven -- Helen Garner, author of THE SPARE ROOM
Bittersweet, funny and moving, Going Home is all this but also has a bright ring of truth which chimes on every page -- Claire Fuller, author of UNSETTLED GROUND
A remarkably assured, moving, melancholy and funny debut -- John Banville, author of THE SINGULARITIES

Author Bio

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.