Going Home

Starred review from November 15, 2024
In the suburbs of London, two young men and one much older man end up caring for a toddler--or trying to. This debut novel from journalist Lamont begins with an unusual, original premise. T�odor Erskine is home from London for the weekend to visit his ailing father, Vic, and spend a little quality time in the pub with childhood friends. As he has in the past, he calls Lia Woods, his dear friend and longtime crush, with an offer to babysit her 2-and-a-half-year-old son, Joel, hoping it will lead to a more adult get-together afterwards. This time it leads to something else entirely, and T�o becomes the interim caretaker for the child, whose paternity is unknown. Well, unknown to T�o, anyway--his friend Ben Mossam and even his poor old dad know the truth. There is so much to love about this book, foremost the poignantly, sometimes painfully detailed portrait of 30-something guys learning to take care of a child with no woman in sight. Joel himself--his way of speaking, his tantrums, his predilections, his memory--is one of the most vivid fictional children since Jack inRoom. The whole lot of them are Jewish, not very religious but strongly identified, as typified by the wild boozer and all-night poker player Ben, who always wears a yarmulke. Their synagogue has a new rabbi, a woman named Sibyl Challis, who is also the best rabbi character in recent memory, both in her idea of embracing "gut Jews, Jews who would not be recognised as Jewish anywhere else, Jews by deed and affinity, those who only felt an inexplicable conviction they belonged," and in her unexpected, intense crush on one of the other characters. But unfortunately, she fails to stop Vic from a betrayal with harsh results. A great premise, a great story, but most of all, great characters.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 4, 2024
A man finds himself caring for his deceased friend’s toddler in Lamont’s affecting debut. Téo Erskine, 30, holds a steady job in London, where he lives alone, and spends one weekend a month visiting his widowed father, Vic, and fellow Jewish friends Ben Mossam, a wealthy playboy, and Lia Woods, a single mother, in the northern suburb where he grew up. One Friday night at the local pub, Téo, who has a crush on Lia, agrees to babysit her two-year-old son, Joel, the next day. He brings the boy to Vic’s house, and after Lia fails to answer his texts, Téo learns that she has died by suicide. The Erskines are then visited by a team of social workers, who ask Téo and Vic to keep Joel there for a few months until they can track down his father. Téo goes on leave from work and the men adjust with the help of Ben, who buys Joel a trampoline; and Sibyl Challis, a new rabbi, who takes Joel for walks. Before the social workers return, Téo is shocked by a startling revelation. Though the story takes a while to gel, Lamont offers a textured view of Téo’s family and Jewish community, and he keeps the reader invested as the characters adjust to Lia’s death and attempt to figure out Joel’s future. Readers will be hooked. Agent: David Forrer, InkWell Management.

January 1, 2025
T�o Erskine left his close friends from childhood in North London for a more independent life in central London. He still visits family and friends monthly, and on one of these visits, tragedy strikes while T�o is babysitting Joel, the rambunctious and imaginative two-year-old son of his childhood love, Lia. T�o must navigate being a father figure for Joel alongside his dad, Vic, who is struggling with a neurodegenerative disease but feels buoyed by Joel's presence, and his closest childhood friend, Ben, whose parents' wealth meant he never had to grow up. Overseeing the community is Sybil, the progressive new rabbi trying to energize the synagogue and ensure that Joel is okay. The shifts in perspective and the rich characterization are similar to those of Jonathan Franzen as award-winning journalist Lamont superbly depicts neurodegenerative decline and complex family dynamics in his first novel. Brilliantly capturing mundane and surprising aspects of raising a child, this is a fascinating portrait of parenting, the British Jewish community, and the struggle to break ties that may be holding you back.

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