Five top bittersweet novels

Meg Mason began her career at the Financial Times and The Times of London. Her work has since appeared in The Sunday Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sunday Telegraph. She has written humour for The New Yorker and Sunday STYLE, monthly columns for GQ and has been a regular contributor to Vogue, ELLE and marie claire, before becoming an author full time.

Her first book Say It Again in a Nice Voice, a memoir of early motherhood, was published in 2012. Her novel You Be Mother followed in 2017. Sorrow and Bliss is her third novel. She lives in Sydney, with her husband and two daughters.

[The Page 69 Test: Sorrow and Bliss]

At the Waterstones blog Mason tagged five favorite bittersweet novels including:

The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett

If there were a special fiction prize for uncut poignancy, The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett would clean up the field. A love story from about 17 directions, equal parts humour and pathos, with the kind of characters, and an ending that won’t let you go.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue