The Homemade God

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 * Sunday Times * 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 * Guardian * A masterly and deeply satisfying exploration of art, grief and familial bonds. -- Hannah Beckerman * Observer * Compulsive and darkly funny, Joyce’s books are a must-read for me and this did not disappoint. -- Sarra Manning * Red Magazine * 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 * Woman's Weekly * The Homemade God shares the characteristic generosity of Joyce's seven previous novels but there's something darker at play. -- Erica Wagner * Harper's Bazaar * 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