From Rose Tremain, the bestselling, Orange Prize winning author of The Road Home, comes a deeply moving coming-of-age story.

Two paths. Two futures. But only one way home.

In the sun-bleached idyll of his Greek island home, seventeen-year-old Petros Castellanos’s future seems mapped out: he’ll inherit his father’s modest taxi fleet and continue his family tradition. However, his English mother sees a different path for her son, one that leads far from the watchful eyes of their small community.

So Petros goes to London to stay with his mother’s cousin. The capital is an overwhelming city whose dazzling possibilities both terrify and enthral him. But he must decide: will he disappoint his father to fulfil his mother’s dreams, or find the courage to chart his own course home?

The Toy Car is a deeply moving coming-of-age story about the weight of expectation and what it means to decide the shape of your own life.