This is a surprising book from Rachel Joyce, I feel. It wasn't what I was expecting from her, having read all of her previous novels, I think. 

Goose and his three sisters have all been worried about their father, a famous painter, who has embarked on a new relationship with a much younger woman who they have yet to meet.

They are distressed when he suddenly announces that he has married and moved to Italy to finish what he has called his masterpiece. 

Then they are told he has died suddenly, drowned in Lake Orta. 

They decamp to Italy where there is no sign of the painting he was working on. Their suspicions grow regarding the motives and culpability of their father's new wife. The siblings respond differently as they seek answers and as the summer goes on they come to discover things about themselves, their father and their stepmother which will transform all their lives. 

I was intrigued by the book - Rachel Joyce is an excellent storyteller, of course, but there was a melancholy and a bleakness about this and the fractured relationships depicted that I found quite tough. It didn't have the life-affirming, inspiring, uplifting tone or message that I associate with her. But a good read!