This Is Home - by Luca Serra (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Carlo moves from his Italian hometown to London and begins life anew as a kitchen porter in an underground mice-infested kitchen. His coworker, Keto, a 40-year-old Ghanaian has quit his job many times but always returns, as if magnetised by the potwash.

Carlo searches for answers with his older housemate Marrok, but Marrok is struggling to cope with memories of past tragedy as death is haunting him.

400 miles north Brazilian au-pair Brunilda arrives in Glasgow. Culture-shocked by accents, sideways rain and food habits, her heart divided between the comfort of her family in Belo Horizonte and a new life in Scotland, she finds an ally in Kamila, a young Polish illustrator, with whom the line between friendship and love begin to blur.

This is Home is a constantly changing exploration of friendship, belonging and what it means to forge your place in the world far away from home.

Luca Serra's debut novel This is Home unearths the hidden corners of city life, where dreams simmer in kitchen sinks and friendships bloom in the cracks of hardship.

A multicultural cast of workers, immigrants, and dreamers in Glasgow and London navigate hard jobs, and the bittersweet search for home.

Four individuals, a Brazilian, a Ghanaian, an Italian and Russian navigate the complexities of identity and belonging in a new country.

Luca Serra is a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award awardee and this is his first novel.

"A Brilliant debut. This is Home is a profound piece of literature for contemporary society."

RAY ANYASI

" A fascinating study of home, friendship, and the lives of four young people experiencing life in a new country. This thoughtful and insightful must-read asks us to consider the view that 'every new day away from home is a day of rebirth'."

OLIVE RITCH

"Luca Serra captures the complexities faced by the people who migrate to the UK to establish new lives. This is Home is a matrix of stories and micro-stories that diverge and intersect, a collaborative puzzle where everyone tries to figure out what 'home' now means to them as they establish new footing in big cities."

ANNA CHEUNG