Sceptre seizes journalist Lamont’s 'tender' debut Going Home

Sceptre has seized journalist Tom Lamont’s debut Going Home, a "tender" novel set in a north London Jewish community.

Executive publisher Federico Andornino acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Jane Finigan at Lutyens & Rubinstein. The book will be published in hardback, export trade paperback, e-book and audio digital download on 2nd May 2024. North American rights were pre-empted by Jenny Jackson at Knopf, while German rights are under offer.

The book’s synopsis says: boy-made-good Téo Erskine is back in the north London suburb of his youth, visiting his father – stubborn, selfish, complicated Vic. Things have changed for Téo: he’s got a steady job, a brand new car and a London flat all concrete and glass, with a sliver of a river view.

"Except, underneath the surface, not much has changed at all. He’s still the boy seeking his father’s approval ... When the unthinkable happens, Joel finds himself at the centre of a strange constellation of men – Téo, Vic, Ben – none of whom is fully equipped to look after him, but whose strange, tentative attempts at love might just be enough to offer him a new place to call home."

Andornino said: "Very few things are harder to capture in writing than the essence of a child: their curiosity, their spirit, their infuriating, endearing, impossible logic. It’s a tricky balance and few writers have the skills needed to get it right. In Going Home, Tom Lamont absolutely nails the brief: little Joel is quite simply perfect, the kind of character that will steal the reader’s heart from page one.

"But Tom achieves something even more profound with his debut: he gives us an exploration of the inner lives of men, in all their petty grievances and quiet moments of pride. It’s an astonishing feat and a beautiful portrait of unexpected – and unconditional – love. It’s a real joy to welcome him to the Sceptre list and I am firmly convinced this is just the beginning of an exciting career."

Lamont added: "I’m pleased and proud that my debut novel, Going Home, will be published by Sceptre... Its story was inspired by a messy phase in my life. My father was very ill. My baby boy was getting older. I remember there was a period when their care needs — my dad’s and my son’s — were almost identical. It was as if they were meeting on a journey, stopping briefly with each other before heading off in opposite directions.

"Somewhere in the mess of my feelings about this, I decided to use it as a staging place for fiction. Now I’m nervously looking forward to that fiction being out in the world."

Lamont is a journalist and a founding writer on the Guardian’s Long Read desk. Since 2017, he has been a regular correspondent for American GQ. His long-form stories in both publications have been optioned for film and TV.