Sorrow and Bliss

The instant Sunday Times bestseller. The book everyone is talking about:

Just read it. Its unforgettable
India Knight, The Sunday Times

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

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 How to Fail

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 youll 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 SUMMER
One of The Times Best books for summer
One of the Guardians 50 hottest new books everyone should read this summer
One of the Independents 30 best books for summer
One of the Irish Independents 50 hottest summer reads
Witty and affecting David Nicholls, Guardians summer reading
If there were any prospect of stuffing a suitcase with books this summer for hours reading beside a pool somewhere, Id advise you to make room for this Sara Collins, Guardians summer reading