Published in 2025 by Amazon Original Stories.
The Toy Car is a coming-of-age story of Petros, an attractive 17 year old boy who lives on a sunny Greek tourist island. His life is mapped out for him - his father owns a popular taxi service and eventually he will inherit the business.
It's a good life by most standards.
But, his English mother is worried that Petros hasn't seen enough of the world so she convinces his father to send him off to live with her sister and her husband in London for a year abroad.
Petros brings along a toy version of his father's taxi, which is where we get the name of the story.
Up to this point, the story is pretty good.
When Petros arrives in London, his aunt and uncle seem very surprised about everything about him. They have not prepared for his arrival. Everything about the very existence of Petros confounds them.
I have no idea why they are acting this way, but it makes for a very poor experience for Petros. He spirals out of control with homesickness and bad experiences with girls and, eventually, he runs home.
What are the lessons learned in this coming-of-age story?
Don't try new things?
London's weather is bad compared to the weather of a Greek island?
Better to be a taxi driver than to meet a girl in England?
Who knows what the point was supposed to be - all I know is that this book failed to deliver one except for the four I mentioned above.
I rate this story 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Toy Car: A Short Story by Rose Tremain.
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