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

· Transworld Digital · Narrated by Rachel Joyce and Sarah Winman
Audiobook
12 hr 43 min
Unabridged
Eligible
Want a free 10 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline. 
Add

About this audiobook

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

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 best...

Discover more

About the author

Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North, The Music Shop, Miss Benson's Beetle, and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories.
Rachel’s books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The critically acclaimed film of the novel, for which Rachel also wrote the screenplay, was released in 2023. Miss Benson’s Beetle won the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize in 2021. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards New Writer of the Year in December 2012 and was shortlisted for the UK Author of the Year in 2014. In 2024 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Kingston University.
Rachel has written over twenty original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4. She lives with her family near Stroud.

Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North, The Music Shop, Miss Benson's Beetle, and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow ...

Rate this audiobook

Tell us what you think.

Listening information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.