The Homemade God

Rachel Joyce
Doubleday, £20, pp384

When commercially successful but critically derided artist Vic Kemp dies suddenly, his four adult children are left reeling. Vic’s recent marriage to a much younger woman – the elusive Bella-Mae – fuels speculation about his death and the whereabouts of his final painting. As the children gather at Vic’s Italian villa, tensions rise and long-buried truths can no longer be ignored. Joyce employs her considerable emotional acuity and deft characterisation to portray the complexities of sibling relationships and the burden of patriarchal dominance in a masterly and deeply satisfying exploration of art, grief and familial bonds.

Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It

Emily Hauser
Doubleday, £25, pp496

Hauser’s fascinating book goes in search of the women who inspired characters in the Iliad and the Odyssey, from Helen and Hecuba to Cassandra and Calypso. Blending archaeology, literature, history and myth, she surveys bronze age evidence to uncover clues as to the identities and often surprising biographies of historical figures who have been largely ignored by classical scholarship.

There Are Rivers in the Sky

Elif Shafak
Penguin, £9.99, pp496 (paperback)

Shafak’s latest multi-perspective novel travels from 19th-century London to 2018, from the Thames to the Tigris, with protagonists including a poverty-stricken young prodigy, a girl who is going deaf, and a hydrologist who has fled her marriage. As these narratives converge, Shafak poses questions about identity, inequality and the significance of water in our lives.

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