Homeward bound - Richard Smith

George is a recently widowed seventy-nine-year-old. He nearly made it as a rock star in the 1960s and he's not happy. Tara is histeenage granddaughter and she's taken refuge from her bickering parents by living with George. Toby is George's son-in-lawand he wants George in a care home.

George has two secrets. 1) He's never revealed why his music career stalled. And 2) No-one knows just how much thedisappointment of opportunities missed still gnaw at him. He craves one last chance, even at his age. When it presents itself,through the appearance of a long-lost distant relative - whose chequered past should set alarm bells ringing - he can't resist.

For Tara, living with her grandfather is a way to find her own path and develop her own musical ambitions. She isn't prepared forthe clash between different generations and living in a strange house full of her grandfather's memories - and vinyl records.

They get off to a shaky start. George takes an instant dislike to the sounds from her bedroom that seem more suited toGuantanamo Bay than anything he would call musical. But as time plays out, they find there are more similarities - neither knowhow to operate a dishwasher - than differences, and parallels across the generations slowly bring them to recognise their sharedstrengths. But when Toby inadvertently sets in motion a chain of events, it leaves Tara with the same dilemma her grandfatherfaced five decades before with the same life-changing choice to make.