Sorrow and Bliss

Written By Katherine Brown

March 2022

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

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.

Other books discussed: Gratitude, A Sunday in Ville-d’Avray, The Lying Life of Adults, A Child of All Nations.

Discussion Resources:

Print Reviews:

Guardian

New York Times

New Yorker

NPR

London Review of Books

Katherine Brown

I’m a Canadian living in the United Kingdom - London to be exact. I’m a business person with an eye for modern design. I’m a customer marketer who thinks like a customer. I’m a design thinker who also happens to be a designer.

I’ve worked at senior marketing levels in large corporations like American Express and Sky TV. I’ve worked agency side, leading digital client accounts. I’ve been part of several start-ups, sat on Angel Investing teams and run my own design and print studio.

In 2021, I started Ascender Creative to help small businesses with big plans build their online credibility and create better customer connections. I do this by taping into my 20+ years of business experience mixing it with a strong customer focus and a big dose of creativity.

https://www.ascendercreative.com
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