The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce
The Homemade God is the latest novel by Rachel Joyce – best known for the Harold Fry trilogy, including The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy and Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North. Personally, my favourite of her novels is the quirky Miss Benson’s Beetle, which is a brilliant read. The Homemade God was first published in 2025 and published in paperback in 2026. I picked up a copy in Waterstones a few weeks ago, when I wandered in to browse. I find it impossible to leave Waterstones empty-handed!
The Homemade God is the story of four adult siblings – Netta, Susan, Goose and Iris – brought up by their widowed father, Vic, a world famous artist. In many ways, Vic wasn’t a great father. He was a drinker and a womaniser, who didn’t really understand what children needed. But he was the very centre of his children’s world and still is.
The siblings are all very different people, but all very close, bonded by their unusual childhoods, which stopped them developing normal adult lives and relationships.
When Vic invites his children to dinner and breaks the news that he is set to marry a much younger woman – Bella-Mae – they are all shocked and decide to cut him off. He gets married in a hurry and, before they even have chance to meet Bell-Mae, he is dead.
The four siblings travel to the Italian villa where they spent so many happy summers to look for his will and find out what actually happened to Vic. Is Bella-Mae really upset or did she play a part in his death?
Over the course of a few short weeks, the cracks in the siblings’ once close relationship start to appear and they fall apart. Will they ever recover from their father’s death and the time spent together at the villa with Bella-Mae?
The Homemade God is a moving and atmospheric read. It lacks the humour of Joyce’s previous novels and feels a lot heavier and in some senses more accomplished. It’s not a page turner. I found I needed to read it in smaller chunks than I do with a lot of the books I read.
If you enjoy books about families and don’t mind a slightly more challenging read, I would definitely recommend The Homemade God.
I might like this one 🙂
I think you probably would!
This sounds intriguing, I might give it a try. What is even more intriguing is the buy one get one half price sticker…did you? I can never resist. I bought four books from Waterstones last time I was there and one wasn’t in the buy one get one half price, but the kindly assistant gave it to me half price anyway.
Back the book, I like mysteries that involve families and their childhood memories.
It is well worth a read. It’s a bit different from all the psychological thrillers I’ve been reading lately.
I definitely bought two books – this one and Atmosphere. It was very kind of the assistant to let you have the book half price anyway!