On the road of excess ; Rose Tremain, whose novels trace the outsider's path across countries and centuries, now follows a migrant's progress in a bloated Britain. She talks to BOYD TONKIN

The Independent - London, June 15th, 2007

From the highest storey of the Random House headquarters in Pimlico, hackneyed film shots lie at every compass-point. Turn one way and West-minster's turrets loom; another, and the Byzantine wedding-cake of MI6 stands tall. This is London, and Britain, from the top down. Across the boardroom table, Rose Tremain - somehow both funky and soignee in a green blouson jacket - explains why her new outsider-hero endures the same city, and country, from the bottom up. Literally. The migrant Lev's progress through a land of material plenty and emotional dearth starts in a subterranean cole- hole in Ear...

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