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Sorrow and Bliss

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Sorrow and Bliss

By: Meg Mason
Narrated by: Emilia Fox
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About this listen

The instant Sunday Times best seller.

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022.

Everyone tells Martha Friel she is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick.

So why is everything broken? Why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and so often sad? And why did Patrick decide to leave?

Maybe she is just too sensitive, someone who finds it harder to be alive than most people. Or maybe - as she has long believed - there is something wrong with her. Something that broke when a little bomb went off in her brain, at 17, and left her changed in a way that no doctor or therapist has ever been able to explain.

Forced to return to her childhood home to live with her dysfunctional, bohemian parents (but without the help of her devoted, foul-mouthed sister Ingrid), Martha has one last chance to find out whether a life is ever too broken to fix - or whether, maybe, by starting over, she will get to write a better ending for herself.

©2021 Meg Mason (P)2021 Orion Publishing Group Contemporary Fiction Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Emotionally Gripping Funny Heartfelt Inspiring Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking Witty Feel-Good

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Critic reviews

"A brilliantly faceted and extremely funny book that engulfed me in the way I am always hoping to be engulfed by novels. I was making a list of all the people I wanted to send it to, until I realised that I wanted to send it to everyone I know." (Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House)

"A devastating and sharply funny love story." (Observer)

"Both fantastically dark and almost unbearably funny.... Just read it. It's unforgettable." (India Knight, The Sunday Times)
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I know this book is about a woman with a mental health illness, but even when she is not actually ill, she appears to be a genuinely very unpleasant person. Everyone in her life seems to adore her - it’s hard to discern why from the book. Even when well, she does things like go to the cinema and talk through the film and need to be asked to stop, and take out a library book, never return it and then return the request to return it as “addressee unknown”, and let a young man who’s seen her home safely late at night walk home across the whole of London rather than let him sleep on the sofa. I did not find a single incident where she showed a bone of consideration for anyone except herself and her entire relationship with everyone is centred around how she feels and whether she likes this or that restaurant or is prepared to eat this or that or go here or there. I nearly gave up on it but I wanted to hold on for SOMEONE to let her know that she’s just a horrid person even when not unwell!!

HOWEVER, the writing and reading are both fantastic and I will be looking for more books by this author. Emilia Fox is, of course, brilliant.

Hard to have sympathy as the protagonist is such an odious person!

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I loved this book. It took me through a kaleidoscope of emotions. A beautiful and harrowing account of mental illness and the human capacity for love and forgiveness.

Exquisite and emotionally vigorous.

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it wasn't till the end that I truly fell in love with this book! which is why I gave it a 4, I never finish reading descriptions of books because all of it is like spoilers to me. I love to find everything for myself. the book is brilliantly written, and very believable, but it's more of a bikd up like I said and I think it's all worth it in the end!

it wasn't till the end

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Cannot believe that the critics described this as “jaw-droppingly funny” or “hilarious”. For me, it was agonising to feel what this character and her husband had to live through because of the undiagnosed psychological condition. I just kept going and going through the book to get to what I hoped would be the relief of the conclusion. It was traumatic but well worth it. But I will admit that the sister and batty mother did bring very welcome moments of comic relief. Phew.

Not funny.

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This is a powerful book, but if you’re looking for plot twists and a conventional structure, you will be disappointed. I’ve also noticed an annoying tendency in many of the reviews of fiction I’ve read for the negatives being from people who didn’t finish it, like a sports writer publishing before injury time in the 1999 Champions League final. On the subject of the illness at the centre of the book I think is a clearly flagged and very powerful, yet avoids labels to make it about the story and characters and not the disease. I can though understand why some people don’t agree with that, but for me it worked.

It’s not helpful when people review a book that they haven’t finished

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Written beautifully, very sensitive and manage to take you through a range of feelings.
Loved the choice of narrator as well, she performed it perfectly.

Loved it... beautifully written

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Really well written and beautifully read by Emilia Fox
Not so fast paced but a lovely measured story with interesting characters that keep you listening.
A love story with hope and redemption at its heart.
I started off not so interested in what seemed spoiled narcissistic characters. After realising they are flawed, I was more empathetic then positively rooting for them and was in tears more than once.

Very listenable. Exquisite word use.

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This book will seep into your soul and linger there long after you’ve finished reading.

Beautiful, heartbreaking and funny!

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Relatable, heart rending, happy, sad and funny. Also perfectly read by Emilia fox - such a great choice for this book. Huge congratulations to the author - it was all so REAL!

Absolutely brilliant

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never before have I pulled into an IKEA car park and sat listening to a book for two hours because I loved it so much. un turn offable. the reading performance just perfect.

stunning in every category

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