Leanne Toshiko Simpson
Leanne Toshiko Simpson is a mixed-race Yonsei writer who lives with bipolar disorder. She was named Scarborough’s Emerging Writer in 2016 and was nominated for the Journey Prize in 2019. She co-founded a reflective writing program at Canada’s largest mental health hospital and teaches at the University of Toronto. Since her hospitalization, Simpson has connected with students, cultural centres, companies and media outlets about the power of storytelling in shaping recovery. Never Been Better is her debut novel.
Never Been Better
By Leanne Toshiko Simpson
Published by HarperCollins Publishers (HarperCollins Canada)
My Best Friend’s Wedding meets The Silver Linings Playbook in this offbeat, heartfelt comedy about a seaside wedding reunion where no one can stay afloat.
Dee, Misa, and Matt were the “three musketeers” of the psych ward. Matt is a teddy bear musician with no discernable coping mechanisms. Wildly efficient Misa is quick to take care of others while neglecting herself. And Dee is a puddle with a heart of gold, eager to convince everyone that she’s finally turning things around. A year after discharge, Matt and Misa are tying the knot in Turks and Caicos, surrounded by guests who have no idea where they met. But the secrecy isn’t sitting well with Dee, who has been hopelessly in love with Matt since before she got kicked out of the hospital.
When Dee arrives at the swanky resort with her high-voltage sister Tilley, it’s now or never to confess how she feels about Matt. But disrupting her best friends’ nuptials would jeopardize the entire support system that holds them all together. When it comes to happily ever afters, how is a girl supposed to choose between love and recovery? Introducing a sparkling new voice in commercial fiction, Never Been Better revels in the heartache and hilarity of falling in love when you haven’t quite figured out how to live with yourself.