You Be Mother: The debut novel from the author of Sorrow and Bliss

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It’s interesting, I felt at half way the tone of the book changed and became a lot more serious. Exploring ideas of family, expectations and friendships, I loved how Abi grew in this book but my heart did ache for her at times, as she always tried to do her best for herself and Jude.

Meg Mason writes about the slow bleed of life-long depression with candour, humour and stark precision. SORROW AND BLISS is about what happens when your illness pushes everyone away - leaving you with only the sorest parts of yourself for company. It will, as the title suggests, shatter your heart, before mending it with infinite love. I've never read anything like it and will be pressing it into the hands of every reader I know.” PANDORA SYKES Imagine the warmth of Monica McInerney, the excruciating awkwardness of Offspring and the wit of Liane Moriarty, all rolled into one delightful, warm, funny and totally endearing novel about families – the ones we have, and the ones we want – and the stories we tell ourselves about them. In Meg Mason’s almost eerily accomplished SORROW AND BLISS, the narrator Martha has suffered from mental illness since her teens. Yet, without ever playing down her pain, the result is often disconcertingly funny.” THE SPECTATOR SORROW AND BLISS is a book you’ll want to devour in one sitting. Meg Mason has written an adult coming-of-age novel, told with force, breathlessness and a confessional style that makes you feel as if you’re sharing intimacies with a close friend. Mason’s writing has been compared to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s for good reason. Martha has a Fleabag-ian wit and obsessive self-reflection, the humour sitting alongside the despair.” THE SATURDAY PAPER This is a story of mental illness reflected through the prism of an uproarious, big-hearted family comedy. It is fiercely intelligent and absolutely sublime. Like Julian Barnes, sublime.” THE IRISH INDEPENDENT

It is an incredibly funny novel, and one that’s enlivened, often, by a madcap energy. Yet it still manages to be sensitive and heartfelt, and to offer a nuanced portrayal of what it means to try to make amends and change, even when that involves ‘start[ing] again from nothing.’” THE GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA A truly comic novel about love and the despair of depression. It’s a rare and beautiful thing when an author can break your heart with humour; it’s also the quality I admire most in a writer.” THE NEW YORK TIMES This is one of the best novels about marriage that I have read, and that is a large field…This is also one of the best novels about mental illness I have read…I am adding it to my list of the best novels of 2020, alongside Andrew O’Hagan’s MAYFLIES, Sofie Laguna’s INFINITE SPLENDOURS and Douglas Stuart’s SHUGGIE BAIN, which won the Booker Prize.” THE AUSTRALIAN You Be Mother: The charming novel about family and friendship from the Women's Prize shortlisted author of the bestselling book SORROW & BLISS

An in-depth study of character, a storyline that trudges along but does have its (heartwrenching) moments, and a sweet main character that got done dirty by nearly all, especially the Woolnoughs and ESPECIALLY Polly, whom I couldn‘t stand one bit. Phil was also pretty judgemental and I wish Roger (whom I liked) could have stepped up to his wife more in general. After hitting it off, Abi falls pregnant, decides to relocate to Sydney to start a family where Jude would go to school and provide for her and the baby. Nothing could prepare Abi for the loneliness of relocating to a place where she only knows one person. She tries to integrate but it is hard, that is until she meets her next door neighbor Phil. Phil is a widower and all her children lives outside of Sydney. Both women cling to each other… until secrets come to light. SORROW AND BLISS is a brilliantly faceted and extremely funny book about depression that engulfed me in the way I'm always hoping to be to be engulfed by novels. While I was reading it, 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 PATCHETTNote: This is nothing like Sorrow and Bliss but at it’s core, Meg Mason continues to write characters who are flawed but you cannot help but love them… and love them, you will. In YOU BE MOTHER we meet Abi who lost her father and sister at a very young age where she lives with her mother who is a hoarder. She doesn’t have a very strong family support, she’s never been in love and felt herself pretty, so it is no wonder she falls in love with Jude who is originally from Australia and came to the UK for university. Every character is extremely flawed yet very loveable. There are characters of every age and stage of life. Some have their shit sorted (mostly) and others are clutching at straws and just hanging in there. As we get to know the characters we become invested in many stories and are seeing everyone’s perspectives without an inch of confusion of who is who or what was going on. Like Phoebe Waller-Bridge, to whose work this book will inevitably (but fairly) be compared, Meg Mason has an innate understanding of the comic power of sadness and how humour can be used to mask one’s reality….SORROW AND BLISS shines as a piece of fiction that makes explicit all the joys and afflictions of 21st-century life” BOOKTOPIA The story is told primarily in short, sharp chapters with names! (I love chapters that have names – these are titled from a quote from a character each time and can be quite funny). It’s definitely worth persevering through the early stages as the second half is wonderfully complex and dramatic with a pinch of fun. Mason pulls off something extraordinary in this huge-hearted novel, alchemising an unbearable anguish into something tender and hilarious and redemptive and wise, without ever undermining its gravity or diminishing its pain…It is impossible to read this novel and not be moved. It is also impossible not to laugh out loud.” THE GUARDIAN

Not the most compelling story, I was surprised Meg Mason also wrote Sorrow and Bliss (one of my favourites of last year), as the books are so very different in pace and style.Meg Mason has achieved something remarkable with her debut novel — Sorrow and Bliss is a raucously funny, beautifully written, emotion-bashing book about love, family and life’s curveballs that leaves you, satisfyingly, with what feels like wisdom forged in fire.” THE TIMES The reason I’ve given it a harsh 3 stars is that I’m furious that useless piece of shit Stu ended up with a lovely family despite essentially abandoning Abi to raise their child on her own because it was all a bit overwhelming for him. Guess what, Stu, getting pregnant was overwhelming for her too, but she had to become a mother immediately because she had no other choice; she didn’t get to delay parenthood until she felt ready. (Hmm, wonder why this is a sore spot for me?) You know that book that only comes along every so often, that seems to unite everyone who has read it in a sort of delirious fervour? SORROW AND BLISS is that book. It’s utterly compelling and darkly funny: the book you have to read this summer.” EVENING STANDARD I kept thinking that this book would make a fantastic movie! You Be Mother was hard to put down and I truly didn’t want it to end. An endearing and wonderful read. 💕 Where can I start? I did wonder if I’d need to rush through this book to begin with but, by the final chapters, I was trying to drag it out and savoured every sentence.

Abi embodies a new generation moving beyond these outdated cultural norms, while still nodding towards the struggles faced by those born into disadvantage – and the millennial gentrification of once working class urban areas. What do you do, when you find the perfect family, and it's not yours? A charming, funny and irresistible novel about families, friendship and tiny little white lies. Abi is a Social Work undergraduate, working part-time in Student Services to help out with the stretched family finances, when she falls pregnant to larger-than-life Australian architecture student Stu. They decide to make a go of it and Abi travels to Sydney with newborn Jude, where the small family is set up in Stu's parents' tiny investment property flat in Cremorne Point, next door to the Woolnough house. Meeting at the local swimming pool, recently widowed Phil (Phyllida) Woolnough is charmed by the lonely, jittery young British mum, and decides to take her under her capable wing. At first the need seems to come almost entirely from Abi's side - alone with her baby more than she should be, while Stu works at the local pub and continues his studies - but after a minor fall Phil comes to rely more and more on Abi for help and company. The relationship between the two women grows stronger and more equal, until a transgression threatens to destroy it. Evocative and hopeful, this book changes our perception of break-ups and interpersonal relationships.” BOOK RIOTThe characters were so believable, I feel I may bump into the Woolnaugh’s in Mosman or Stu at a coffee shop in the Inner West struggling with a pram. The first half was a gentle introduction to the characters. In London, Abi has become pregnant to her Australian boyfriend and he has now returned to home to complete his studies. All Abi has every wanted is a family but due to a tragic accident when she was younger, she and her mother have a very dysfunctional relationship. So when Stu says that he will support her and their child Jude if she comes to Australia, she jumps at the chance. SORROW AND BLISS is a modern love story that’s funny and dark, sharp and tender, hopeful and hard to put down. It has a brooding Sally Rooney vibe (but explores a slightly older and more mature slice of life) with exceptional inner monologue and palpable chemistry among the characters.” GOOP SORROW AND BLISS is a thing of beauty. Astute observations on marriage, motherhood, family, and mental illness are threaded through a story that is by turns devastating and restorative. Every sentence rings true. I will be telling everyone I love to read this book.” SARA COLLINS, author of THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON