More or Less Maddy cover art

More or Less Maddy

A Novel

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

More or Less Maddy

By: Lisa Genova
Narrated by: Tessa Albertson
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.39

Buy Now for £18.39

About this listen

**National Bestseller**

A “riveting page-turner” (Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee) about a young woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder who rejects the stability and approval found in a traditionally “normal” life for a career in stand-up comedy.

Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out freshman at NYU. Between schoolwork, exams, navigating life in the city, and a recent breakup, it’s normal to be feeling overwhelmed. It doesn’t help that she’s always felt like the odd one out in her picture-perfect Connecticut family. But Maddy’s latest low is devastatingly low, convincing her to go on an antidepressant. She begins to feel good, dazzling good in fact, and she soon spirals high into a wild and terrifying mania that culminates in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

As she struggles to find her way in this new reality, navigating the complex effects bipolar has on her identity, her relationships, and her life dream, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough.

With her signature “deep empathy and insight” (Booklist), Harvard-trained neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author Lisa Genova has crafted an “affecting, harrowing, beautiful, and enlightening” (Shelf Awareness) novel that makes complicated mental health issues accessible and human. More or Less Maddy is destined to become another classic like Still Alice.
Family Life Genre Fiction Women's Fiction

Critic reviews

"Narrator Tessa Albertson captures the turmoil experienced by Maddy, a college student who is grappling with a recent diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Albertson's youthful timbre and expressive intonation perfectly convey Maddy’s myriad symptoms, which include obsessional thinking and self-harm by cutting. Albertson's varied pacing helps listeners sense Maddy's intense discomfort and confusion. Secondary characters, including Maddy's concerned mother and sister, as well as her sympathetic friends, Sophia and Simone, are presented with nuance and depth. While some listeners may find a subplot involving Maddy's foray into stand-up comedy distracting, the important topic of bipolar disorder is handled with sensitivity and clarity by the dynamic pairing of neuroscientist Genova's perceptive writing and Albertson's thoughtful performance."
No reviews yet