The Bright Side

Twelve Months, Three Heartbreaks, and One (Maybe) Miracle

By: Cathrin Bradbury

Narrated by: Jessica Porter

"Anyone who has had their life completely gutted and rewired will adore this family story. Bradbury's dark humour and gloriously upbeat voice makes it the perfect antidote to a tough year. I loved it!" (Plum Johnson, author of They Left Us Everything)

The hilarious and moving story of how a modern woman's life can change utterly in a single year - and how, even when life whacks you in the head, you can find yourself rewarded with grace.

Cathrin Bradbury's life imploded in the space of a few months. Her beloved parents died, her marriage limped to an end after 25 years, her heavily mortgaged house turned against her, and a promising new romance ended in crushing disappointment.

But somewhere in that year, a new path, or three or four, began to open up. As Bradbury navigates the setbacks, her troubled brother makes an astounding recovery to health and sobriety. She is reunited with her closest childhood friend after a long absence, with deeply satisfying results. She and her four siblings feel their way to becoming a new kind of family without their parents. And her adult children emerge into sharper focus, each gloriously and uniquely themselves. Slowly, she discovers that the path is steep, the view obscured, but there's light ahead.

Cathartic, hilarious, and profoundly moving, The Bright Side broadens the way we think and talk to each other about the ordinary experiences we all share. A master of the uncomplaining voice, Bradbury combines grace and humanity to look at the world unflinchingly and see what makes it wonderful and absurd at the same time, and to let us all in on the secret.

©2021 Cathrin Bradbury (P)2021 Penguin Random House Canada

Critic reviews

“It is rare for a memoir to be very funny and unwaveringly honest. But Cathrin Bradbury’s The Bright Side is brilliantly both. You could (quite correctly) call The Bright Side charming - but only if you also point out that it is smart, beautifully written, and mercilessly clear-eyed on the subject of what time has in store for us all.” (David Macfarlane, author of Likeness)

“Anyone who has had their life completely gutted and rewired will adore this family story. Bradbury’s dark humour and gloriously upbeat voice makes it the perfect antidote to a tough year. I loved it!” (Plum Johnson, author of They Left Us Everything)

“One of the miracles of this funny and poignant book is that Bradbury makes growing up along the Niagara Escarpment sound as enchanting as Paris. And in this era of fractured relationships, The Bright Side‘s magnificent depiction of her parents’ steady love for one another will touch hearts. The Irish-Catholic father, in particular, with his shined shoes and incessant cheerfulness, was wonderfully drawn. Not a wasted word - I loved it.” (Catherine Gildiner, author of Good Morning, Monster and Too Close to the Falls)