SORROW AND BLISS (WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON) (PB)

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 Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and so often sad? And why did Patrick decide to leave? Forced to return home to live with her dysfunctional, bohemian parents, Martha has one last chance to write a better ending for herself.