From a celebrated Canadian author, a profound meditation on grief and the impact of mental illness on a family.



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.