Sorrow and Bliss

Sorrow and Bliss (2020) is a novel by Australian writer Meg Mason. It follows the narrator Martha’s experience with mental illness, and how she ends up pushing away the people closest to her before eventually finding her way back to them again. The book explores themes of motherhood, mental illness, and the importance of communication in relationships.

Mason has written for newspapers and magazines, including The Financial Times and The Times of London. Sorrow and Bliss is her second novel; her debut novel, You Be Mother (2017), and her memoir, Say It Again In A Nice Voice (2012), also explore similar ideas and themes about motherhood.

This guide uses the HarperCollins Kindle Edition.

Content Warning: The source text features scenes of mental illness, substance use and addiction, suicide and suicidal ideation, and child loss. There are also references to domestic abuse, both physical and verbal.

Plot Summary

Martha Friel recounts the story of her life until age 41. While the timeline of the plot in this overview is chronological, the narrative in the book occasionally features disjointed recollections of incidents from different points in her life.

Martha is the older daughter of poet Fergus Russell and moderately famous sculptor Celia Barry.