| Vendor | |
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Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik |
| Original language | |
| English | |
NEVER BEEN BETTER
A heartwarming and funny #OwnVoices debut a romantic comedy about navigating love while living with mental illness, for fans of The Silver Linings Playbook and The Rosie Project.
Matt, Misa, and Dee are the three musketeers of the psych ward. Matt is a teddy bear human with a lopsided grin and no discernible coping mechanisms. Soft-spoken and strong-willed, Misa is wildly efficient at taking care of others and avoiding her own problems. And Dee is a puddle with a heart of gold, trying to overcome a track record of not finishing what she starts. A year after discharge, Matt and Misa are hosting a picture-perfect destination wedding in Turks and Caicos. There is only one problem: Dee has been in love with Matt ever since he got her kicked out of the hospital.
When Dee arrives at the swanky resort with her high-voltage sister Tilley as her plus one and human fire extinguisher, Dee feels morally obliged to confess her feelings and disrupt Matt and Misa's upcoming nuptials, Julia Roberts style. But when Dee realizes that Misa, the poster child of the mood disorders clinic, doesn't want the other wedding guests to know where they met, she worries that she's being left behind and starts to self-destruct. Then there are the complexities of the wedding party to contend with Misa's family's discomfort with mental illness, Matt's sudden detour from his treatment plan, and Tilley's growing frustration with Dee's habit of prioritizing love over recovery.
With the beachside ceremony due to take place in a matter of days, it's now or never for Dee to tell Matt how she feels. The problem is, disrupting Matt and Misa's nuptials would jeopardize the entire support system that holds them all together. When it comes to happily ever afters, how is a mad girl supposed to choose between love and recovery?
Grounded in the complications of love, jealousy and psychiatric recovery, NEVER BEEN BETTER reveals the heartache and hilarity that are found in the gray area between sick and well.
LEANNE TOSHIKO SIMPSON is an award winning, mixed race Yonsei writer who lives with bipolar disorder. Named Scarborough's Emerging Writer in 2016 and nominated for the Journey Prize in 2019, she co-founded a reflective writing program at Canada's largest mental health hospital in 2017, returning to the psychiatric spaces that had left such an impact on her. In 2018, she led the establishment of an in-gallery creative writing program with the Royal Ontario Museum. As a Bell Let's Talk ambassador, Leanne often speaks to media outlets, students and companies about the power of storytelling in recovery. You can find out more about her here, and watch her talking about her own mental health journey here.
Leanne has had the support of numerous writers in working on this novel. At the University of Guelph, she has worked at various stages with Kyo Maclear, Carrianne Leung, Catherine Bush and Mona Awad. Leanne has also been mentored by Joy Kogawa and worked abroad with Blake Morrison at the University of London on a nationally funded research grant.
Informed by her own lived experience, NEVER BEEN BETTER is the novel Leanne has longed to read ever since she was diagnosed.
When Dee arrives at the swanky resort with her high-voltage sister Tilley as her plus one and human fire extinguisher, Dee feels morally obliged to confess her feelings and disrupt Matt and Misa's upcoming nuptials, Julia Roberts style. But when Dee realizes that Misa, the poster child of the mood disorders clinic, doesn't want the other wedding guests to know where they met, she worries that she's being left behind and starts to self-destruct. Then there are the complexities of the wedding party to contend with Misa's family's discomfort with mental illness, Matt's sudden detour from his treatment plan, and Tilley's growing frustration with Dee's habit of prioritizing love over recovery.
With the beachside ceremony due to take place in a matter of days, it's now or never for Dee to tell Matt how she feels. The problem is, disrupting Matt and Misa's nuptials would jeopardize the entire support system that holds them all together. When it comes to happily ever afters, how is a mad girl supposed to choose between love and recovery?
Grounded in the complications of love, jealousy and psychiatric recovery, NEVER BEEN BETTER reveals the heartache and hilarity that are found in the gray area between sick and well.
LEANNE TOSHIKO SIMPSON is an award winning, mixed race Yonsei writer who lives with bipolar disorder. Named Scarborough's Emerging Writer in 2016 and nominated for the Journey Prize in 2019, she co-founded a reflective writing program at Canada's largest mental health hospital in 2017, returning to the psychiatric spaces that had left such an impact on her. In 2018, she led the establishment of an in-gallery creative writing program with the Royal Ontario Museum. As a Bell Let's Talk ambassador, Leanne often speaks to media outlets, students and companies about the power of storytelling in recovery. You can find out more about her here, and watch her talking about her own mental health journey here.
Leanne has had the support of numerous writers in working on this novel. At the University of Guelph, she has worked at various stages with Kyo Maclear, Carrianne Leung, Catherine Bush and Mona Awad. Leanne has also been mentored by Joy Kogawa and worked abroad with Blake Morrison at the University of London on a nationally funded research grant.
Informed by her own lived experience, NEVER BEEN BETTER is the novel Leanne has longed to read ever since she was diagnosed.
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Book
Published by HarperCollins Canada |