The Homemade God
By Rachel Joyce
Review by Louise Cannon
Bookmarks and Stages
The Homemade God is a fascinating and absorbing read about sibling relationships and the cracks that fragment those ties. What happens to them when this occurs?
I am delighted to review this latest book from Rachel Joyce. Thanks to Alison Barrow at Transworld Books UK/Double Day UK for the opportunity to review.
Check out the blurb and my full review and buy links below.
Blurb
There is a heatwave across Europe.
Goose and his three sisters gather at the family’s house by Lake Orta in Piedmont, Italy. Their father, a famous artist, has recently remarried a much younger woman and decamped to Italy to finish his masterpiece. Now he is dead and there is no sign of a painting.
Although the siblings have always been close, as they search for answers over that summer, the things they learn – about themselves, their father and their new stepmother – will drive them apart before they can come to any kind of understanding of what their father’s legacy truly is.
Extraordinarily compelling, at heart this is a novel about sibling relationships and those hairline cracks that can appear within a family: what happens when they splinter, and what it would take to mend them.
Review
From the first page, transportation to a summer heatwave occurs where you can hear the sound of flip-flops. From that page, it’s easy to be drawn in. You’re there! Meet Goose, Susan, Netta, Iris and their dad, whom they refer to as daddy. It’s easy to get caught up in their lives and what seems cosy and close. It’s fascinating reading about what can be deep within people and Joyce doesn’t shy away from any of it. She has given her characters desires and fantasies, whether in a professional field or a relationship one.
Expect the unexpected from this author and all tastefully written.
I have to digress here and say that it’s rather fun seeing one of them want to be a chef like Lesley Waters, purely because when I was growing up, I saw her and the sense of fun she brought to cooking in the likes of Ready Steady Cook and now I rarely hear of her, so I thought this was exciting. Now, back to more important things like the book…
Vic Kemp is an interesting character who you see intriguing art from and hope it would be one day in the top art galleries. What you also see is the inner turmoil and strife of an artist that feels authentic. There’s also a developing and compelling mystery about the women who may or may not be just his muse…
The observations of the human condition are profound, especially when it comes to Vic and Goose, both of whom tug at heartstrings.
There’s a wonderful sense of urgency in some of the plot, when it comes to their father’s death. It hooks you in even further as many questions are posed by the family as his life is delved deeper into, which gives a slight sinister and intriguing feel.
The complexities of the weaving of light and dark in human life in their circumstances, desires, secrets are expertly interwoven into an unravelling and uncovering major elements of the family Rachel Joyce has created. It makes The Homemade God intriguing and highly compelling. It also puts the reader through many emotions as it becomes increasingly involving the more you read into the characters and what is being portrayed.
Rachel Joyce excels at drawing readers into family relationships and developing characters and situations that are believable and some of which are relatable. The conversations that occur are natural and you can totally become involved in “listening in on them” in what is a compelling drama that unfolds.
The dark humour that pricks the narrative and conversations is delightful!
I highly recommend Rachel Joyce’s books and this is another masterpiece!
You can pre-order now. Homemade God is published 17th April 2025:
Amazon Waterstones WH Smith Bookshop.org
*Please note I am not affiliated with any company.
About the Author
Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, The Music Shop, the instant New York Times best seller Miss Benson’s Beetle, Maureen Fry & the Angel of the North and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories. Her latest novel The Homemade God will be published in April ’25 in UK, and June ’25 in US and Canada.
Rachel’s books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and sold millions of copies world-wide. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The critically acclaimed film of the novel, for which Rachel wrote the screenplay, was released in 2023 starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton, and in 2025 the musical will open in Chichester Festival Theatre, for which Rachel also wrote the script. Miss Benson’s Beetle won the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize 2021, Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards ‘New Writer of the Year’ in December 2012 and she was shortlisted for the ‘UK Author of the Year’ 2014. In 2024 she was given an honorary doctorate by Kingston University.
Rachel has written many original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4 and she is currently adapting Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen which will be aired later this year. You can follow her on Instagram at rachelcjoyce.
Bookmarks and Stages by Lou 