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The Homemade God

The Sunday Times bestseller from the prize-winning author, for readers of Ann Patchett and Maggie O’Farrell

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The Homemade God

By: Rachel Joyce
Narrated by: Rachel Joyce, Sarah Winman
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Brought to you by Penguin.

Family is everything, even when it falls apart.
Discover the brand-new novel from the multi-million-copy bestselling author.

AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER!

Family is everything, even when it falls apart: discover the brand-new novel from the multi-million-copy bestselling author. Perfect for fans of Ann Patchett and Maggie O'Farrell.

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 what happens when they splinter, and what it would take to mend them.

Featuring an exclusive interview between Rachel Joyce and bestselling author, Sarah Winman. Listen to the end for a fascinating insight into their writing processes and their experiences of narrating their audiobooks.

'A sharp, absorbing and emotionally intelligent novel.' Guardian

‘A beautifully written family drama ... Long after I finished the last page, I found I missed these characters – always the sign of a special book’ - GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

'Joyce, who was an actor before she turned exclusively to writing, modulates her [tone] with immense delicacy. It’s impossible not to feel the comedy inherent in the siblings’ well-worn to and fro, nor the sorrow when their bonds begin to break down.' – Financial Times

©2025 Rachel Joyce (P)2025 Penguin Audio

 Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Heartfelt Italy
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Critic reviews

THE BEST BOOKS OF 2025 SO FAR: Rachel Joyce has become known as an author of quiet, often older, lives.
In The Homemade God, she changes track – and it works.

(Robbie Millen)
The mysterious death of an artist causes havoc among siblings in a novel that astutely observes family dynamics ... Joyce is also exceptionally good at blending the big stuff of life with the small ... a sharp, absorbing and emotionally intelligent novel. (Joanna Quinn)
A masterly and deeply satisfying exploration of art, grief and familial bonds. (Hannah Beckerman)
Compulsive and darkly funny, Joyce’s books are a must-read for me and this did not disappoint. (Sarra Manning)
Woman's Weekly LOVES The Homemade God: As the simple story of a family falling apart unfolds, written in Joyce’s inimitable style, we ask whether some wounds are just too deep to heal. (Zoe West)
The Homemade God shares the characteristic generosity of Joyce's seven previous novels but there's something darker at play. (Erica Wagner)
Sparkling and addictive … Rachel Joyce is so incredibly good and wise on families and siblings, pacing out a story’s secrets so that you have to read one more page. [It’s My Cousin Rachel meets The Enchanted April.] I couldn’t love it more. (Harriet Evans, author of The Stargazers and The Garden of Lost and Found)
The Homemade God is an enthralling, thought-provoking, layered novel, seamed with a delicious dark humour. And, as in all the best redemptive stories, through the rubble of grief glimmers hope, acceptance and love. Truly wonderful. (Sarah Winman, author of Still Life)
Lyrical, shrewd and, ultimately, as indecently satisfying as a four course Italian lunch, The Homemade God tells of four siblings surviving an artist father none can admit is a talentless monster and how the fallout of his death obliges each to shatter and rebuild their life. My life is a little emptier now it's over. (Patrick Gale, author of A Place Called Winter)

A new novel by Rachel Joyce is always a cause for celebration and this was no exception.
I have always found something dark in her fiction and I feel this has been played down by reviewers at the expense of the warmth and healing that is also part of her great appeal. This terrific novel absolutely refused to be cosy and provided all sorts of misdirections and a sense of foreboding throughout. At first I could hear echoes of My Cousin Rachel and feel my anxieties and sympathies being expertly manipulated as I tried to work out who I was rooting for, but it was so much more subtle than that - none of the characters are wholly good or bad or dislikeable, because Rachel always shows us why they behave as they do. The missing picture was a neat image of the siblings' struggles to see their childhood with any kind of clarity.
Another triumph of insight and empathy!

(Clare Chambers)
All stars
Most relevant


The Homemade God is interesting beside Lucy Steed's currently hugely acclaimed The Artist, both books having at their centres selfish, self-deluding artists with gargantuan egos, but both working out very differently. The Homemade God begins with the death of a family's artist father in Italy where he had gone to live with his new young lover ostensibly to complete his latest masterpiece.

What follows is a riveting analysis of the splintering of the relationships between the siblings as each of the artist's grown children flock to sun-drenched Piedmont to sort things out. The narrative flits back to childhoods, analyses marriages and relationships, strips bare facades whilst unerringly maintaining suspense and pace . It is all hugely entertaining but also it is complex and satisfying as the onion layers of each of them are unfurled. There are quibbles in places, but one of its strengths is that it is cheering! The backdrop of lakeside Piedmont is heady with flowers, the brilliant blues of sea and sky and simmering sex.

The Audible download has a bonus: a discussion between Rachel Joyce and Sarah Winman about their writing methods. Rachel Joyce's researches in Italy was particularly interesting and the whole conversation was filled with insights.

Five stars plus!

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Oiginally, I failed to finish this, but I've picked it up again and made it to the end. Unfortunately, my feelings haven't really changed. Lovely writing and narration, but it just felt like the musings of a bunch of self-obsessed middle class siblings, and I really couldn't have cared less what happened to any of them.

I just couldn't get involved with it.

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Another incredible book from Rachel Joyce, touched with humour, realism and likeable characters. Also narrated by the author, this is possibly my favourite book so far! You won't be disappointed.

Fantastic writing, Fantastic story, Fantastic narration!

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The development of characters into fully understandable human archetypes was very powerful!
I come from a very similar ‘background’ and I cried at the end of the story.
In the culmination of everyone’s journey, especially Gustaf’s (Goose) the observer, the absorber of all the pain and joy of being part of this family!
Rachel’s insight into the dynamics of sibling behaviour, magnified by the loss of a completely self absorbed Father and absent (dead) mother! Was brilliant!
The possibilities of their worship focus, having ‘feet of clay’ and their crumbling apart! Spoke of great awareness and possible experience?
Thank you Rachel for writing and performing the characters so well.
An enjoyable and revealing read!

Loved the examination of Sibling relationships and the overbearing effects of dysfunctional parenting

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I wanted to like this, but I didn't find the characters or relationships likeable enough to keep listening

i couldn't push past the first half

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