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Sorrow and Bliss
- Narrated by: Emilia Fox
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
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Sorrow and Bliss
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Summary
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.
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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)
What listeners say about Sorrow and Bliss
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Sue
- 13-02-21
couldn't stop listening
lovely book ,pulls you in and makes you laugh and cry, feel like I really know the characters which is what I want from a good book
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- S Lewis
- 31-10-21
Beautifully narrated
Beautifully narrated by Emilia Fox, unsurprisingly. The story was heartbreaking at times but I couldn’t stop listening! So well written.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Georgina Green
- 05-09-21
poignant and laugh out loud funny
I adored this book. It was performed beautifully. I wish I could write like that.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Julie Walker
- 08-03-22
Loved
A complex honest well written book. I loved the audio version ,which was beautifully read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kylie
- 22-12-21
Real & Raw
Meg Mason really gets under the skin of the characters, and at some point, you will hate them, love them, morn for them. At times even feel their anguish even once you have put the book down. So refreshing to read a real story about love and loss.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- L. Ferretti
- 30-01-22
sisterly love at its best
This is the best book I've read in the past year. so painful and so insightful, these sisters are so funny too.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Carmella Soprano
- 09-01-22
Great listen
Really well read by Emilia Fox, strong story about an unnamed mental illness and the main character’s journey. Some lovely humour too. Would recommend.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- bizzy
- 02-12-21
Awesome read
One of my top books of 2021 full of love , hope , sadness and humour.
Emilia Fox was an amazing narrator
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mrs. V. Riley
- 15-11-21
The only book I’ve ever listened to twice
What a book. Sincere, deep, poignant and so emotional. Needs concentration and reflection and I’m dreading finding my next book - not sure this can be rivalled.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Ms. Jane
- 09-12-21
Depressing story, well read
Interesting sorry, certainly frustrating and depressing. It begins like a serious Bridget Jones and then turns into a story of mental health. We are never told the illness but assume it is bipolar. The central character is very, very self centred. It is irritating that she can behave so awfully and yet still have a husband who loves her and puts up with it all. He is almost unrealistic in character which annoyed me. But perhaps that is the fictional part of the story. He just seemed rather unbelievable. But I did listen all the way through the and did enjoy it.
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