As we ride through the storms of Martha’s life we see first-hand how difficult things are and their impact on those around her, including her sister whom she shares a close bond. The story covers mental health issues and the effects of these on generations. At other times, I wanted her to wake up to what she had before it was too late. She is a complex character and one that I liked most of the time. It completely absorbed me as I wanted to stay with Martha and see that things worked out ok. I picked up this book and couldn’t put it down. She has disconnected from her herself and her family and can’t find her way back.Īs we go back to her childhood and the events that shaped her, as well as her role in those events, we come to realise the depth of Martha’s turmoil and the external forces at play. Martha’s husband has recently left her she feels she has nothing. Sorrow and Bliss is a story told by Martha, a 40 something woman who is looking back on her life. 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.įorced 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. Or maybe – as she has long believed – there is something wrong with her. Maybe she is just too sensitive, someone who finds it harder to be alive than most people. 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? A gift, her mother once said, not everybody gets. 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.

Reviews of sorrow and bliss