Publication Date: July 8, 2025
With sparkling wit and insight, this powerful novel from the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry reminds us that family is everything, even when it falls apart.
There is a heatwave across Europe, and four siblings have gathered at their family’s lake house to seek answers about their father, a famous artist, who recently remarried a much younger woman and decamped to Italy to finish his long-awaited masterpiece.
Now he is dead. And there is no sign of his final painting.
As the siblings try to piece together what happened, they spend the summer in a state of lawlessness: living under the same roof for the first time in decades, forced to confront the buried wounds they incurred as his children, and waiting for answers. Though they have always been close, the things they learn that summer—about themselves—and their father—will drive them apart before they can truly understand his legacy. Meanwhile, their stepmother’s enigmatic presence looms over the house. Is she the force that will finally destroy the family for good?
Wonderfully atmospheric, at heart this is a novel about the bonds of siblinghood—what happens when they splinter, and what it might take to reconnect them.
When their 76-year-old father announces he is marrying a woman he has only known for six weeks, the Kemp siblings are less than thrilled.
Author Rachel Joyce uses this concept as the basis for The Homemade God. To make the plot even more interesting, the new stepmother is a mere 27 years old, which puts her six years younger than the fourth sibling.
Vic’s sudden death forces the siblings to come together as they try to determine what happened to their artist father. Forced proximity for Netta, Susan, Iris, and Goose means plenty of uncomfortable conversations as they interact with their new stepmother. And for siblings who have not spent large amounts of time together, the door is opened for some unpleasant scenarios.
The character development unfolds through the various perspectives in the story. It was interesting to try and guess the role Bella-Mae plays. Ultimately, the story focuses on the complex relationships between the siblings and their larger-than-life father.
The Homemade God delivers a family drama set in Italy with a twist of mystery.
Rachel Joyce is the author of the New York Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, The Music Shop, Miss Benson’s Beetle, and Maureen, as well as the collection, A Snow Garden & Other Stories. Her books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Booker Prize, and the critically acclaimed film, for which she also wrote the screenplay, was released in 2023. She was awarded the Specsavers New Writer of the Year National Book Award in December 2012 and was shortlisted for the UK Author of the Year in 2014. Miss Benson’s Beetle won the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize 2021 and in 2024 Rachel was awarded an honorary doctorate by Kingston University. She lives with her family in Gloucestershire, England.
