"If This is Home" by Stuart Evers is a gripping and thought-provoking novel that explores the nature of truth and deception in our post-factual world. The story follows the journey of Mark Wilkinson, a man with a carefully constructed identity, who is forced to confront his lies and deceptions after an act of shocking violence.

Evers' writing style is both elegant and engaging, and his characters are well-drawn and complex. The novel raises important questions about the nature of truth and the power of deception to shape our lives. The themes of memory, dreams, and self-deception are woven throughout the story, and Evers handles them with a deft touch.

The novel is set in both Las Vegas and a small English town, and the contrast between these two settings is striking. The world of the rich and powerful in Las Vegas is depicted as hollow and superficial, while the small English town is portrayed as a place of honesty and authenticity. The contrast between these two worlds is a powerful reminder of the importance of community and connection in our lives.

"If This is Home" is a highly original and memorable debut novel that will appeal to readers interested in contemporary fiction and the nature of truth and deception. Evers' nuanced portrayal of his characters and their struggles is both moving and thought-provoking, and the novel will stay with readers long after they have finished it. Highly recommended.

There’s some good –or at least competent – writing here, but the author has made the mistake of writing two disparate storylines and then never letting them come together. Two books in one. Mark Wilkinson decides to leave his mundane small-town English life behind for a new start in the US. He finds himself in Las Vegas where he becomes involved in a truly surreal luxury complex named Valhalla. This section of the book is frankly weird and it’s a relief when he decides he needs to head back to England, and think again about the events that led to him leaving in the first place. The England section works much better and although the plot is fairly mundane, the characters come to life in a way that the US ones don’t. A tale of love and loss, belonging and dislocation, a coming-of-age story and a love story – all this but nothing very original and I found the book ultimately unmemorable.

Not for me sadly .
Thank you to both NetGalley and Zuckerman Publishing for my eARC of this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

This is one of the books i find occasionally . It reading as voyeurism . Its beautiful in parts but i never feel i am in the room or involved . some great writing some fantastic passages but i couldnt ever feel involved

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"Las Vegas, you realize, runs not on money, but on the perniciousness of hope....Watching hope, and those that have it, destroys you."
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I wanted to like this one, It had a lot of very promising elements - a great plot (reinvented selves and the way our pasts always seem to catch us up), cool setting (the Valhalla is, literally, a dream come true for its visitors, strong writing (see the above quote). But somehow it never came together for me, and I found myself caring not one whit about Joe/Mark, his secrets, his reasons for what he's done, and the consequences of it all... Early on, I found my interest flagging. The back and forth in time and place and perspective is a fairly common writing style and one that usually works fine for me, but this time I found it rougher-going for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. I can't identify why this one didn't work for me - usually I can pinpoint something that I had particular issues with, but I can't really do that here. I just never connected to the story or characters in the way I hoped to, and as a result I found my attention skipping all around the pages as I put the book down and picked it back up again a slew of times...