A blistering tale of sapphic obsession and an extreme first love set in 1960s Australia.

Aspiring artist Lilith has been dragged to her father’s homeland of Australia, a place in which she never feels at home, following a scandal she refuses to talk about. Her one saving grace amidst the oppressive heat and the tight grip of her mother is her dearest friend, Mona. Lilith is captivated by Mona at first sight, her fixation manifesting itself in unending, feverish reproductions of da Vinci’s most famous work as she paints her muse again and again. But when Lilith’s past begins to interfere with her present and captivation starts to feel like captivity, can Lilith and Mona survive the sharpest edges of a love that Lilith would rather kill than let go of?

A visceral and discomfiting debut of obsession, possession, and the extremes of how a first love can shape—or mangle—our lives, Be Happy I Am Mad is a romantic, gothic fever dream from a major talent and blazing new voice.