Going Home is a sparkling, funny, bighearted story of family and what happens when three men—all of whom are completely ill-suited for fatherhood—take charge of a toddler following an unexpected loss Téo Erskine, now in his thirties, has moved on from childish things: He has a good job, a slick apartment in London, and when he heads back to the suburbs on the occasional weekend to visit his old friends, he makes sure everyone knows he can afford to pick up the tab. So what if he asks a few too many questions about Lia, the girl of their group, wondering if she will come out, if she’s seeing anyone, if she might give him another shot? Téo is hazily aware that something possibly happened between Lia and Ben Mossam, Téo’s closest friend and his greatest annoyance, but he can’t bring himself to ask. Lia, meanwhile, has no time to indulge their rivalry. She’s now the single mother of a toddler son, a kid named Joel that Téo occasionally (and halfheartedly) offers to babysit. Téo is home for one such weekend when the unthinkable happens—a tragedy in the heart of their group—and he suddenly finds himself the unlikely guardian for little Joel. Together with his father, Vic, Ben Mossam, and Sybil, Lia’s beguiling rabbi, they bide time until they can find a proper home for Joel, teaching him to play video games, plying him with chicken nuggets and waffles, and learning to sing him lullabies at night. But when a juvenile mistake leads to a terrible betrayal, Téo must decide what kind of man he wants to be. Wise, relatable, and blissfully laugh-out-loud funny, Going Home is a captivating first novel that explores the mysterious ways children can force us to grow up fast while simultaneously keeping us young forever.

There's nothing wrong with Going Home at all. A story about three people who take responsibility in various ways for a toddler who's mother commits suicide, Lamont explores what it means to be a guardian and how we express that duty to others. In particular, we want to praise Lamont for his depiction of the toddler. Joel is dopey and annoying and charming in turns in what felt completely realistic to us, and it's very rare that we feel children are depicted with such accuracy and care. Still, nobody at NUBClub really loved this book. We all liked the arc of the main character, Teo, as he comes to take responsibility for Joel in a complex set of self-imposed obligations to his deceased mother and then deals with his lack of legal rights to be Joel's guardian, but we just didn't find it that interesting to read. We don't want to judge this one too harshly though. Going Home was easy to read, with well thought out characters and a complex view of its theme. We just can't say we loved it.