Sorrow and Bliss

Sharp, stylish and revelatory, this novel is sure to be one of the big success stories of the year. -- Sarah Gilmartin ― IRISH TIMES

Consistently funny and sharp and dark: it's wonderful. ― Charlotte Mendelson, author of ALMOST ENGLISH

[A] razor-sharp exploration of mental health and identity. Hilarious and heartbreaking, this is best enjoyed over a large glass of rosé on a sunny afternoon. ― COSMOPOLITAN

The unforgettable novel you need to read this summer. ― TIMES BOOKS NEWSLETTER

I've never read a novel about the impact of mental illness on the life of a woman, and those around her, like this. It is simply brilliant, and Martha's voice is a joy: hilarious, sharp and devastating. A must read. -- Alice O'Keefe ― THE BOOKSELLER, Editor's Choice

Nina Stibbe meets Fleabag -- Charlotte Heathcote ― DAILY EXPRESS

Blisteringly good... a novel that manages to be psychologically complex, yet still an utter joy to read. Sorrow and Bliss bristles with great one-liners and setpieces that are sometimes alarming, sometimes comic, but more often both. ― READER'S DIGEST

Heartbreakingly sad and yet screamingly funny. -- Deirdre O'Brien ― BEST

I very much enjoyed Meg Mason's witty, affecting Sorrow and Bliss. -- David Nicholls ― GUARDIAN - Hot Summer Books feature

This is a beautiful depiction of a marriage, with all of its ugliness and joy. But its also a brilliant depiction of a whole family, wounded by a legacy of mental illness, and tender, witty, and loving, in spite of it, So funny, and so very, very sad. ― Abigail Dean, bestselling author of GIRL A

An incredibly funny and devastating debut ... enlivened, often, by a madcap energy. Yet it still manages to be sensitive and heartfelt, and to offer a nuanced portrayal of what it means to try to make amends and change. ― Guardian

With its finger on the modern pulse, Sorrow and Bliss blisters with its prose which manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking in the same line. I kept having to stop to underline sentences. It reminded me of a cross between Fleabag and My Year of Rest and Relaxation, but really, Meg Mason has crafted a protagonist who feels completely her own person. Fresh and alive. ― Jodie Chapman, author of ANOTHER LIFE

Sorrow and Bliss is a moving and poignant story about mental illness, family and love. It made me laugh and cry; a bittersweet read that will stay with you for a long time. ― Libby Page, bestselling author of The Lido

I devoured this book, with all its humour and pain and cock-eyed hope. It's a funny and excruciating portrayal of mental illness, family dysfunction and love, all told through the point of view of a narrator who is in turn frustrating and endearing, but always fascinating. I adored it from the first page. ― Julie Cohen, author of TOGETHER

Sorrow and Bliss is hilarious, haunting, and utterly captivating. Meg Mason has created a heroine as prickly as Bernadette in Where'd You Go, Bernadette. Her humor is as arch and wise as the best work of Joan Didion and Rachel Cusk, yet completely original. What a thrilling new voice! ― Amanda Eyre Ward, New York Times bestselling author of THE JETSETTERS

Brutal, tender, funny, this novel - a portrait of love in all of its many incarnations - came alive for me from the very first page. I saw myself here. I saw the people I love. I am changed by this book. ― Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of ASK AGAIN, YES

So dark, so funny, so true. You will see your sad, struggling, triumphant self in this deeply affecting novel ― Laura Zigman, author of SEPARATION ANXIETY

This is a romance, true, but a real one. It's modern love up against the confusing, sad aches of mental illness, with all its highs, lows, humour and misery. Comparisons to Sally Rooney will be made, but Mason's writing is less self-conscious than Rooney's, and perhaps more mature. Her character work is outstanding, and poignant-the hairline fractures, contradictions and nuances of the middle-class family dynamic are painstakingly rendered with moving familiarity and black humour, resulting in a combination as devastating and sharply witty as Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag. ― Bookseller+Publisher

Exploring the multifaceted hardships of mental illness and the frustrating inaccuracy of diagnoses, medications, and treatments, Sorrow and Bliss is darkly comic and deeply heartfelt. Much like the narrator of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Martha's voice is acerbic, witty, and raw. Fans of Marian Keyes should put this on their to-read lists.

― Booklist

Martha's anecdotes, simultaneously funny and sad, are stacked with observations that alternate between brutally cutting-especially when directed at her mother and at the patient and supportive Patrick-and aching, as when her oblique descriptions of her sister's growing family increasingly belie her true feelings about motherhood. Witty and stark, Martha's emotionally affecting story will delight fans of Sally Rooney. ― Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Martha Friel, the narrator of this improbably charming novel about mental illness, will have you chortling and reading lines aloud. ― PEOPLE

Meg Mason has the ability to keep the reader alongside and sharing in the hope every step of the way. ― WOMAN & HOME

A sharp-eyed look at the impact of mental illness that's heartbreaking but also bitterly funny. -- Jo Finney ― GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

Deliciously dark and fantastically funny. ― THE SUNDAY POST

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