Overview

The three protagonists in this memoir are dead: a mother, a father, and a sister. A bookish and artistic family living in a beautiful old house in a pleasant part of Toronto. Two girls growing up in the 60s and 70s. All seems well until one of them begins to manifest signs of distress, leading, eventually, to a diagnosis of schizophrenia. In this triptych of beautifully written memoir-essays, Canadian author Martha Baillie reflects on the complex entangled lives of her mother, father and sister. There Is No Blue is both a close observation of a family's experience of a diagnosis of mental illness, and a layered story of grief.

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9781803511030

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This is a stunning memoir, intense and meticulous in its observations of family life. Baillie subtly interrogates and conveys the devastating mistranslations that take place in childhood, the antagonism and porousness of siblings, and the tragedy of schizophrenia as it unfolds. I couldn't put it down. -- Lisa Appignanesi A meditation on the mystery and wonder of grief and art making and home and memory itself... Baillie's variety of attention, carved out of language, is tenderness, is love... Extraordinary -- Maud Casey, author of City of Incurable Women Exquisite -- Souvankham Thammavongsa, author of How to Pronounce Knife Strange, unsettling, highly evocative, often disturbing. Its brave honesty is amplified by a persistent lyricism; its undercurrent of fear is uplifted by a surprising, resilient hopefulness. It is both a plea for exoneration and an act of exoneration, an authentic meditation on the terrible difficulty of being human -- Andrew Solomon

This is a stunning memoir, intense and meticulous in its observations of family life. Baillie subtly interrogates and conveys the devastating mistranslations that take place in childhood, the antagonism and porousness of siblings, and the tragedy of schizophrenia as it unfolds. I couldn't put it down. -- Lisa Appignanesi This strange, unsettling memoir of outer life and inner life and their bizarre twining captures the author's identity by way of her mother's death, her sister's failing battle with mental illness, and the mysterious figure of her father. It combines anguished guilt, deep tenderness, and bemused affection in highly evocative, often disturbing prose. Its brave honesty is amplified by a persistent lyricism; its undercurrent of fear is uplifted by a surprising, resilient hopefulness. It is both a plea for exoneration and an act of exoneration, an authentic meditation on the terrible difficulty of being human -- Andrew Solomon, author of Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree A meditation on the mystery and wonder of grief and art making and home and memory itself... Baillie's variety of attention, carved out of language, is tenderness, is love... Extraordinary -- Maud Casey, author of City of Incurable Women Exquisite -- Souvankham Thammavongsa, author of How to Pronounce Knife Strange, unsettling, highly evocative, often disturbing. Its brave honesty is amplified by a persistent lyricism; its undercurrent of fear is uplifted by a surprising, resilient hopefulness. It is both a plea for exoneration and an act of exoneration, an authentic meditation on the terrible difficulty of being human. -- Andrew Solomon

Author Information

Martha Baillie is the author of the novels The Search for Heinrich Schlogel, If Clara, and The Incident Report which was nominated for a Giller Prize. With her sister, Christina Baillie, she also wrote Sister Language. She lives in Toronto.

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