AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER 

Orders for The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness will be posted a week prior to the official launch on March 1st, 2022. Thank you for your support of this work.

A work for young adults and adults.
Hardback
Written, illustrated and composed by Matt Ottley (with guest composition by Alf Demasi)

The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness is a groundbreaking, large-scale multi-modal project weaving together the worlds of literature, music and visual art in the poignant story of one boy’s journey into mental illness. Readers and listeners are offered a mesmerising visual and auditory tour de force about beauty and resilience, society and belief, that at its heart expresses hope for a greater understanding and embracing of difference.

The narrative unfolds around the metaphor of a tree, growing within the boy, whose flower is ecstasy and whose fruit is sadness. 

This luminous, multi-faceted work is inspired by the experiences of its award-winning creator, Matt Ottley, who has lived with bipolar disorder all his life and been hospitalised on numerous occasions in mental health facilities. Having personally experienced the prejudices and challenges that come from suffering a mental illness, Matt’s aim is to offer a sensory insight through words, music and images into the experiences of those who suffer from such debilitating illnesses, particularly psychosis.

A masterful allegorical tale for the 21^st century.