Rachel Joyce – författare

Family is everything, even when it falls apart.Discover the escapist new Sunday Times bestselling novel from the multi-million-copy bestselling author of Miss Benson’s Beetle and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. 'The perfect holiday read.'-The Times‘A must-read.’ Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry‘I didn't think it was possible to love Rachel Joyce's writing more, then I read The Homemade God…gorgeous.’ - Jennie Godfrey, bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things'Rachel Joyce is a masterful storyteller.' - Sarah Winman, bestselling author of Still Life---------------------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 happens when they splinter, and what it would take to mend them. Praise for The Homemade God: ‘The most moving, beautiful and brilliant book I’ve read in a long time.’ - Claire Pooley, author of How to Age Disgracefully‘A triumph of insight and empathy!’ - Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures'Sharp, absorbing, emotionally intelligent.' - Guardian'Deeply satisfying.' – Observer’A highly compelling mystery and a tender, brilliantly drawn exploration of sibling dynamics. I couldn't put it down.' - India Knight, author of Darling'Joyce is a fearless explorer of emotional landscape.' –Sunday Times'If only there were more novelists like Rachel Joyce.' –Telegraph‘Joyce writes with her trademark vitality and … I couldn’t put it down.’ - Esther Freud, author of Hideous Kinky and Mr Mac and Me'Lyrical, shrewd and, ultimately, as indecently satisfying as a four course Italian lunch. My life is a little emptier now it's over.' - Patrick Gale, author of A Place Called Winter'Sparkling and addictive … Rachel Joyce is so incredibly good and wise on families and siblings. I couldn’t love it more.' - Harriet Evans, author of The Garden of Lost and Found

WINNER OF THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE | BEST PUBLISHED NOVELWOMAN & HOME BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR and A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'The perfect escape novel for our troubled times.' PATRICK GALE'If you’re wishing you could be in a faraway land right now, but would accept the alternative route to New Caledonia via a deliciously improbable plot, wonderful characters, sparkling sentences, and too many belly laughs to count: have I got a novel for you.' BARBARA KINGSOLVER It is 1950. In a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition. She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist.Enid Pretty, in her unlikely pink travel suit, is not the companion Margery had in mind. And yet together they will be drawn into an adventure that will exceed every expectation. They will risk everything, break all the rules, and at the top of a red mountain, discover their best selves.This is a story that is less about what can be found than the belief it might be found; it is an intoxicating adventure story but it is also about what it means to be a woman and a tender exploration of a friendship that defies all boundaries.'A girl's own adventure...This is Rachel Joyce's best book yet ...Exciting, moving and full of unexpected turns.' THE TIMES'Brilliant and elegant and wise...powerful and moving...I can't recommend it enough.' JOANNA CANNON'A beautiful portrayal of female friendship in all its frailties, contradictions and strengths.' RAYNOR WINNWOMAN & HOME BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020; DAILY MAIL BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020; BOOKMARK BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020; GOOD HOUSEKEEPING BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020Rachel Joyce's latest novel, The Homemade God is out now.

'Tense and engrossing... readers who loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will not be disappointed.' - Sunday Times'An instant classic.' - Daily Express'You will end up grinning dippily and recommending this wild, searching book to everyone you know.' - The Times'Brilliantly realized... a powerful study of grief, loss, guilt, depression, mental illness - and ultimately the power of love - which grips the reader on every page.' - Daily MailSummer, 1972: Two seconds have been added to the Atomic clock so as to counteract the irregularities in the Earth's rate of rotation. Eleven-year-old Byron has been told this but still struggles to understand. What might it mean? In the claustrophobic heat, he and his friend begin ‘Operation Perfect’, a hapless mission to rescue Byron’s mother from impending crisis.Winter, present day: As frost creeps across the moor, Jim cleans tables in the local café, a solitary figure struggling with OCD. His job is a relief from the rituals that govern his nights.Little would seem to connect them except that two seconds can change everything.If your world can be shattered in an instant, might time also put things right?RACHEL JOYCE'S MOST RECENT NOVEL - THE HOMEMADE GOD - IS OUT NOW FROM DOUBLEDAY

From the author of the world-wide bestseller, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: ' A beautiful novel, a tonic for the soul and a complete joy to read.' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep.1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk - as long as it's vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need.Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind ...'Hits all the right notes...a love story that's as much about the silences between words as what is said - the spaces between people that can be filled with mystery, confusion and misunderstanding as well as hope." ObserverRACHEL JOYCE'S NEW NOVEL, THE HOMEMADE GOD, IS OUT NOW.Rachel Joyce, Sunday Times bestseller, May 2025

Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online.Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction, introducing language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content.The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework of Reference for language learning (CEFR). Exercises at the back of each Reader help language learners to practise grammar, vocabulary, and key exam skills. Before, during and after-reading questions test readers' story comprehension and develop vocabulary.The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, a Level 5 Reader, is B1 in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to four clauses, introducing present perfect continuous, past perfect, reported speech and second conditional. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear regularly.Harold Fry lives a quiet, ordinary life in England. But when he gets a phone call and learns that his old friend Queenie Hennessey is dying, he decides to post her a letter to her home 500 miles away. As he walks to the post box, Harold begins to think about his past and his family. He decides on walking until he reaches Queenie.Visit the Penguin Readers websiteExclusively with the print edition, readers can unlock online resources including a digital book, audio edition, lesson plans and answer keys.

'Impossible to put down' TIMES'Life-affirming delight. A comic pleasure' WOMAN AND HOME'Profoundly moving' RICHARD MADELEYOVER 6 MILLION COPIES SOLD. NOW A MAJOR MOVIE STARRING JIM BROADBENT AND PENELOPE WILTON____________________When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other.He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To save someone else's life.Harold Fry is the most ordinary of men. He just might be a hero for us all.____________________'A gorgeously hopeful book' OPRAH MAGAZINE'A funny book, a wise book, a charming book . . . Harold Fry is just wonderful ... I love this book' ERICA WAGNER, THE TIMES'The odyssey of a simple man, original, subtle and touching' CLAIRE TOMALIN'One of the sweetest, most delicately-written stories I've read in a long time. One man's walk along the length of England to save the life of a dying woman . . . Philosophical, intriguing, and profoundly moving' RICHARD MADELEY'Full of heart, laced through with wry wit. I loved Harold and Maureen and their separate journeys . . . A celebration of being alive, being human. Beautiful!' NIAMH CUSACK'Tender and funny, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry shows that even our frailties can be uplifting and redemptive' EDWARD STOURTON____________________THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY is the first of three novels about Harold Fry. If you love this novel, you will also enjoy THE LOVE SONG OF MISS QUEENIE HENNESSY and MAUREEN FRY AND THE ANGEL OF THE NORTH.____________________

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!‘The perfect holiday read ...There’s a new heft and grandeur, not only in the sophisticated characters and the fancy Italian real estate, but in the hidden darkness that can exist in a family ... Rachel Joyce is firing on all cylinders.’ THE TIMES'A masterly and deeply satisfying exploration of art, grief and familial bonds.' OBSERVER'Warm and emotionally astute.' MAIL ON SUNDAY'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'A thoroughly engaging examination of familial truths that define and endanger the precious, ever-precarious sibling bond. The beautiful writing, unforgettable characters, and stunning setting make this a must-read.' - Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in ChemistryThere 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.'It made me laugh, it made me cry and I couldn’t put it down. If you are a fan of Maggie O’Farrell you must read this.' - Louise Minchin, TV presenter and author of Isolation Island’The renowned artist - the emotionally starved children - what an inspired subject! Joyce writes with her trademark vitality and compassion and there is such colour here. So much at stake. I couldn’t put it down.’ - Esther Freud, author of Hideous Kinky and Mr Mac and Me'Lyrical, shrewd and, ultimately, as indecently satisfying as a four course Italian lunch. My life is a little emptier now it's over.' - Patrick Gale, author of A Place Called Winter'Sparkling and addictive … Rachel Joyce is so incredibly good and wise on families and siblings. I couldn’t love it more.' - Harriet Evans, author of The Garden of Lost and Found‘A triumph of insight and empathy!’ - Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures'Joyce is a fearless explorer of emotional landscape.' – Sunday Times'If only there were more novelists like Rachel Joyce' – Telegraph

*Companion edition to the major film written by Rachel Joyce, award-winning author of the internationally bestselling book, directed by Hettie Macdonald (Normal People) and starring Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton*Contains exclusive new behind-the-scenes insights and colour photographsHarold is an ordinary man who has passed through life, living on the side lines, until he goes to post a letter one day...and just keeps walking.This edition includes stills from the film; also exclusive material about adapting novel to book by Rachel Joyce; Rachel Joyce in conversation with the producers; and insights from the producer about the challenges of making the movie.'The odyssey of a simple man, original, subtle and touching.' Claire Tomalin'From the moment I met Harold Fry, I didn't want to leave him. Impossible to put down.' Erica Wagner, The Times

'Short but very special. ... funny, touching and quite beautiful.' Matt Cain'A powerful finale to her classic trilogy of heartbreak and healing.' Clare Chambers'An unforgettable story. It's beautiful all through, but the closing chapters are just astonishing, transcendent and hope-filled and life-affirming.' Donal Ryan'Just brilliant' Patrick Gale'Profoundly moving and deeply human, this story of self-discovery and forgiveness is essential reading. I loved every word.' Bonnie Garmus'Astonishingly powerful... Truly stunning' Ruth Jones......................................................................................................................................Ten years ago, Harold Fry set off on his epic journey on foot to save a friend. But the story doesn't end there. Now his wife, Maureen, has her own pilgrimage to make.Maureen Fry has settled into the quiet life she now shares with her husband Harold after his iconic walk across England. Now, ten years later, an unexpected message from the North disturbs her equilibrium again, and this time it is Maureen's turn to make her own journey.But Maureen is not like Harold. She struggles to bond with strangers, and the landscape she crosses has changed radically. She has little sense of what she'll find at the end of the road. All she knows is that she must get there.Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North is a deeply felt, lyrical and powerful novel, full of warmth and kindness, about love, loss, and how we come to terms with the past in order to understand ourselves and our lives a little better. Short, exquisite, while it stands in its own right, it is also the moving finale to a trilogy that began with the phenomenal bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and continued with The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.This is a slender book but it has all the power and weight of a classic.Rachel Joyce's latest novel, The Homemade God is out now.

From the author of the 2 million+ copy, worldwide bestseller, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, - soon to be a major movie starring Jim Broadbent - an exquisite, funny and heartrending parallel story.When Queenie Hennessy discovers that Harold Fry is walking the length of England to save her, and all she has to do is wait, she is shocked. Her note had explained she was dying. How can she wait?A new volunteer at the hospice suggests that Queenie should write again; only this time she must tell Harold everything. In confessing to secrets she has hidden for twenty years, she will find atonement for the past. As the volunteer points out, 'Even though you've done your travelling, you're starting a new journey too.'Queenie thought her first letter would be the end of the story. She was wrong. It was the beginning.Told in simple, emotionally-honest prose, with a mischievous bite, this is a novel about the journey we all must take to learn who we are; it is about loving and letting go. And most of all it is about finding joy in unexpected places and at times we least expect.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'A beautiful story which will grip you, make you laugh and cry, uplift your spirit and leave you feeling profoundly grateful' DAILY MAIL'Will leave you wide-eyed and wanting to read it all again . . . wondrous' THE TIMES........................................................................................................................................................................................................IF YOU LOVE THIS NOVEL YOU WILL ALSO ENJOY THE FINAL PART OF THE HAROLD FRY TRILOGY - MAUREEN FRY AND THE ANGEL OF THE NORTH - OUT NOW!

As read on Radio 4, seven linked stories set in the Christmas holidays - all as funny, joyous, poignant and memorable as Christmas should be:A Faraway Smell of Lemon: The School Term has ended. It is almost Christmas but Binny, out last-minute shopping couldn't feel less like wishing glad tidings to all men. Ducking out of the rain she finds herself in the sort of shop she would never normally visit.The Marriage Manual: Christmas Eve. Two parents endeavour to construct their son’s Christmas present from a DIY kit and in the process find themselves deconstructing their marriage.Christmas at the Airport: A glitch in the system, travellers stranded and all sorts of lives colliding in the face of a sudden birth...The Boxing Day Ball: Maureen has never been out with the local girls before. Who knew that a disco in the Village Hall could be life-changing?A Snow Garden: Two little boys, dumped with their divorced father for his share of the Christmas holidays and none of them with a clue how to enjoy it. I'll Be Home for Christmas The most famous boy in the world comes home hoping to escape the madness with a normal family Christmas.Trees: As if Christmas wasn't wearing enough, now his elderly parent is asking for a hole in the ground … Father and son break old habits and plant a tree to mark the start of the new year.

'You'd think it should be the simplest thing. Walking. Just one foot in front of the other. But it never ceases to amaze me how complicated things can be.'Harold Fry never meant to be a hero. An ordinary man in an ordinary life, until a letter from a long-lost friend sends him out the front door… and he keeps on walking.Strangers turn into companions, kindness appears in unexpected places, and the road reveals more than Harold ever imagined. Back home, his wife Maureen begins her own journey, one that might bring them together again.Funny, profound and uplifting, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a joyous celebration of the human spirit, adapted by Rachel Joyce from her multi-million-selling novel, with music and lyrics by the chart-topping musician Passenger. Originally commissioned by Chris Harper Productions, it was first performed in a critically acclaimed, sold-out run at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2025. The production transferred to the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, in 2026, directed by Katy Rudd, starring Mark Addy and Jenna Russell.