Conflicting Exile Issues in Contemporary England in Rose Tremain's The Road Home

Since the formation of the EU many citizens of the former Eastern Europe have been seeking a better life in England. Rose Tremain's The Road Home is a novel that represents the case of Lev, one of these emigrants. This paper draws on Edward Said's concept of the exile intellectual to examine, first, whether the  protagonist can be categorized as an exile intellectual, second, to what extent does he succeed in playing such a part. The paper also draws on Suzanne Nalbantian's Memory in Literature  to examine the part played by memory in Lev's life during his one-year-stay in England. The paper focuses on Lev's engagement in certain issues such as out-casting foreigners, defected custody laws, negligence of the old, and the freedom of artists to express their "cutting edge" ideas. These are investigated as  prominent aspects of life in contemporary England.
Keywords Exile intellectual. Memories. Out-casting foreigners. Custody. Elderly people. Cutting-edge