As Rachel Joyce was joining the lineup for ‘The Book Taster Live 2026’, I knew it was time to read ‘The Homemade God’. It was a book I had picked up on a trip to Bath at the start of the year, so it was certainly time to pick it up off the tbr pile (which is never getting any smaller – as all us bookworms know).
This was a fantastic study of family and relationships. Especially the relationship between siblings, and how they may hold memories or how they understand the family dynamic. At the centre of the story is the patriarch of the family, Vic Kemp, a famous artist, who announces to his children that he has the woman who will be his wife. A much younger woman at that.
From that moment, the four siblings become suspicious of this new, mysterious figure in their father’s life, and what her motive may be. Vic and his wife begin their life in Italy, but when he is found dead, and the painting that he has declared his masterpiece is missing, the siblings all begin a search for the truth of what has happened to their father and his painting. However, some of the discoveries that are made send shockwaves through the family; will the relationships withstand the events that take place in Italy?
This is such a page-turner of a read because there is so much that you feel you need to find out as you read the book – and you have to know how the four siblings will survive the events that are taking place. It is such a fascinating study of the family dynamic, and how life can change as you lose someone that may have centred that family (even if not perfectly), and how relationships may change without that anchor, however forced it may be.
The novel is, as you would expect from the pen of Rachel Joyce, beautifully written and beautifully constructed. I felt like I was right there in Italy, in the sunshine (which was a welcome treat with the very variable British weather we have…). And it is a book that made me feel I had to know what was going to happen next. The characters are brought to life in such a way that you feel like you have really met them – or that you know someone who is very much like them.
This is certainly a book I will be recommending to people, especially as we approach (hopefully) the summer reads season, which always makes the chance to read seem even more of a treat.