If This Is Home

Stuart Evers' debut novel is an exercise in restraint and slow reveals. It occupies multiple time strands, cities and personalities as its protagonist escapes from, then returns to, his suffocating home town and the dark past he left behind.

In Las Vegas, Mr Jones works at the Valhalla, where the richest of men can buy anything they want. Joe Novak watches the relationships around him ebb and flow as he comes to terms with something he left behind a long time ago, in England, when he was known by another name. Mark returns to his hometown to rediscover himself and uncover some truths about his past. This is not a spoiler, it says so in the blurb on the back, but they are all the same person. Moving between Las Vegas and England, If This Is Home, discusses the notion of home, self, identity and delusion. Wherever we lay our hats, is that our home? Can we escape our past? If we return to confront our past, what is the onus on the people we return to?

Evers asks a lot of questions in this book, and they are slowly resolved in flashbacks and flash asides, as more of Mr Jones/Mark/Joe Novak's life and lives is and are revealed. It's a neat trick, one reminiscent of Don DeLillo. It's a subtle, masterful and thoughtful meditation on what it truly means to come home.