Bookseller Reviews
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Remarkable
It can be difficult to review a book like this without coming across as the absolute worst - using phrases like "it was so beautiful and so raw and so pain... READ MORE
My favourite book ever (really)
Meg mason writes with the wit, emotion and characters of Phoebe Waller Bridge in a style so similar to Fleabag. I really appreciated the decision to keep t... READ MORE
Beautifully honest
There is something about this book, I could repeat the fabulous things that have already been said in other reviews. But I need to tell you, there is just ... READ MORE
A gut-punch of a novel that is not to missed.
Sorrow and Bliss is a book with a huge heart, and a protagonist so vivid and three-dimensional she remains with the reader far beyond the final page. It is... READ MORE
A real must-read for our times
The reviews likening it to the drama ‘Fleabag’ and Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’ in reviews immediately made want to read this. There are similarities i... READ MORE
Deeply moving and relatable
A deep-dive into one woman’s declining mental health that will simultaneously break your heart and put it back together again. A real triumph.
A Rollercoaster Ride
Easily one of the most remarkable books I have read and one I recommend to customers.
Although it is about a very delicate subject, it tackles it sensitiv... READ MORE
In one word: Bittersweet!
'... ideally, you want to figure out the reason why you keep burning your own house down.'
I was not expecting to get tangled in some many emotions while ... READ MORE
The Best Book I read in 2022
Told with poignancy and brutal honesty surrounding mental health, Meg Mason has crafted an outstanding book of her generation that tackles the ongoing stig... READ MORE
Genuine, relatable and utterly unputdownable!
This is a brutally honest, heart-wrenching story of the ups and downs of life, weaving family dynamics and mental health to create a very real, engaging an... READ MORE
Brilliant!
This novel is as savage as funny, it is pacey and unputdownable!
Finishing it left me with a feeling of emptiness, it was too good to end!
I was going to l... READ MORE
An utterly brilliant read!
Sorrow and Bliss is one of my favourite reads of all time!
It allows the reader to empathise with someone struggling with a mental health condition and re... READ MORE
Sorrow and Bliss is a phenomenal debut
Sorrow and Bliss is a phenomenal debut that gives a glimpse into the experiences of mental health. Within the book, Martha is faced with the task of gettin... READ MORE
Simply blissful
‘Sorrow and Bliss’ is full of just that and it made me laugh and cry in equal measure. I truly didn’t want it to end. Mason really has produced one of the ... READ MORE
A story that left its mark
With its biting humour and unflinching honesty, this deep dive into one woman’s psyche was every bit as emotional and raw as you could expect. It delved in... READ MORE
A great read!
Sorrow and Bliss focuses on a young woman, Martha, who has been struggling with mental health all her life due to a misdiagnosis. However, she has amazing ... READ MORE
Painfully yet beautifully honest.
This is one of the best portrayals of mental health I’ve read. I’m still unable to form words to describe how much I loved this so these short sentences wi... READ MORE
Tender, endearing and wonderfully witty
The exploration of relationships in Sorrow and Bliss - sisterly, parental, marriage; a wistful longing for youth - is so authentic that it is hard not be a... READ MORE
Delicate and complex
This was beautifully written - I think the blurb on the back does it a disservice as it's a lot more heartbreaking and devastating that I thought it would ... READ MORE
Bleakly Beautiful and Darkly Funny
This was one of my top ten reads of 2021. It is simply marvellous. Bleakly beautiful and energising, like a walk on a winter beach.
Mason tells the story... READ MORE
Synopsis
Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for May 2022
Winner of The British Book Awards 2022 Fiction Book of the Year
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. A gift, her mother once said, not everybody gets.
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.
Publisher information
- Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
- ISBN: 9781474622998
- Number of pages: 368
- Dimensions: 216 x 128 x 34 mm
- Weight: 264g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
View allVery enjoyable
I very much enjoyed this sharp, witty and very moving story. I loved the writing style, the fast pace and family dynamics.
You feel the sorrow and bliss
This book is brilliant. The author is so talented she just makes you feel the sorrow and bliss of the main character. I did find it emotionally exhausting,... READ MORE
Interesting and wise
Gorgeous little slice of relationships and family and mental health. And a lot more fun than that sounds
Brilliant!
Shortlisted for the "Women's Prize for Fiction 2022.
Brilliant! Nothing but the highest praise for Sorrow and Bliss (AKA ‘dsgsdfsf.doc’ - an ‘accidental’ ... READ MORE
Novel set in London and Oxford
This novel kept coming up in my social media timelines, so it was perhaps time to pick it up!
At the heart of the story is Martha, who, in her teens is al... READ MORE
One of the best books of the year
Some books are so good you count down the hours until you can go back to them and Meg Mason's Sorrow and Bliss is one of them. This is a novel about a woma... READ MORE
Book review
A very interesting book
astonishing
I wish I could tell you how many times I almost picked this book up and didn't. After months of flirting, I bought it in Edinburgh and attacked it right aw... READ MORE
Lovely style
Really readable writing style. Good story. Shame it isn’t more rooted in a genuine diagnosis - I felt that was a cop out and let the book down drastically.
Amazing
This is best book I've read in a long time . I was completely gripped , the way she addressed mental health and trying to explain or deal with it while s... READ MORE
Beautiful
What a fabulous, gorgeous, emotional book.
Not much of either really
This book was obviously from one of the featured piles in my local Waterstones store and the bookseller who served me told me that ‘everyone is talking abo... READ MORE
An absolute feat of a character study.
While ‘Sorrow and Bliss’ fits into the tradition of ‘sad girl novels’, it contains a certain quality which makes it a little different from the rest. Perha... READ MORE
Boring
Mildly amusing person has unspecified mental illness, is hell to live with and has a difficult life. Perhaps one has to have experienced similar to enjoy t... READ MORE
Great read
Very true. Anyone can find something in this book to connect and reflect on.
Dissappointing
This book was lauded by critics as laugh out loud and the comments on the book covers expressed the same view. Unfortunately I found nothing amusing in thi... READ MORE
An easy read
This is a very easy story to read, as you go through the story you will find gut wrenching problems that are dealt with. The torment is there for everyone ... READ MORE
A great book despite the title
I loved this book and bought it out of curiosity, as it had been sitting at the top of the bestseller lists for some time. Though I didn't like the cover o... READ MORE
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
This is the best book I have read in a long time. It is about a woman called Martha with an unnamed mental illness which makes her life a misery and tormen... READ MORE
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