Sorrow and Bliss

An instant Sunday Times bestseller and a book of the year for the Times and Sunday Times, Guardian, Observer, Independent, Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard, Spectator, Daily Express, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Irish Daily Mail, Metro, Critic, Sydney Morning Herald, Los Angeles Times, Stylist, Red and Good Housekeeping

The book everyone is talking about:

''Just read it. It''s unforgettable''
India Knight, The Sunday Times

''Full of snappy one-liners but, at the same time, remarkably poignant''
Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

''Completely brilliant. I think every girl and woman should read it''
Gillian Anderson

''Witty and affecting''
David Nicholls

''Exactly the book to read right now, when you need a laugh, but want to cry''
Eva Wiseman, Observer

''The most wonderful, heartbreakingly gorgeous novel of the year''
Elizabeth Day, author of Magpie

''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 masterclass on family, damage and the bonds of love''
Jessie Burton, author of The Confession

''Patrick Melrose meets Fleabag. Brilliant''
Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures

''It is impossible to read this novel and not be moved. It is also impossible not to laugh out loud... Extraordinary''
Guardian

''A raucously funny, beautifully written, emotion-bashing book''
The Times

''Probably the best book you''ll read this year''
Mail on Sunday

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.

THE BOOK OF THE YEAR
One of The Times ''Best books for summer''
One of the Guardian''s ''50 hottest new books everyone should read this summer''
One of the Independent''s ''30 best books for summer''
One of the Irish Independent''s ''50 hottest summer reads''