Mira T. Lee’s debut novel, Everything Here is Beautiful, tells the story of a woman’s journey to self-fulfillment despite the difficulties her mental illness brings her. The novel garnered critical acclaim, landing on the New York Times Editor’s Choice list and being titled Book of the Year in 2018 by the Wall Street Journal. Everything Here is Beautiful was published in January 2018 by Penguin Publishing Group. Throughout its pages, Everything Here is Beautiful contemplates a variety of complex issues ranging from the need for balance between the self and family to the ways that mental illness is stigmatized within society.

Lee’s debut novel is a New York Times Editor’s Choice and was named a Best Book of 2018 by various publications, including the Wall Street Journal and O, The Oprah Magazine.

This study uses the 2019 edition of the novel by Penguin Random House.

Content Warning: This novel discusses mental illness and the ways in which it can impact daily life. The content depicts miscarriage and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

As young girls, sisters Miranda and Lucia share a deep and meaningful bond. Miranda, the older of the two, struggles to balance her individual desires with her responsibility to Lucia, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and experiences “episodes” every so often. Miranda believes that she is the only person who can take proper care of her sister, and she struggles to find balance between living her own life and caring for Lucia.

Three years after an “episode,” Lucia meets and marries a Jewish Russian man named Yonah. Miranda is not supportive of their relationship at first, but the couple is happy. For a while, things are peaceful. Miranda begins to move forward in her own life, dating a Swiss doctor named Stefan. However, Lucia gradually begins to experience another “episode” and becomes irrational and angry. She demands that Yonah has a child with her, and when he refuses, she leaves him.

Lucia meets a young man named Manuel (“Manny”) at a laundromat nearby. He is an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador who is kind to Lucia, and the pair share an immediate romantic chemistry. The relationship progresses quickly as Lucia moves into the small apartment Manny shares with several other people. Though Manny is enamored by Lucia, he is also fearful of her unpredictability. Soon, Lucia announces that she is pregnant, and Manny decides to devote himself to both Lucia and the baby. Manny fights against expectations placed upon him by his family to quickly marry Lucia so that his ill brother Fredy can come to America for treatment. Shortly after their daughter Esperanza’s birth, however, Lucia experiences another “episode” in which she becomes incapable of caring for her baby and for herself. This eventually leads to her hospitalization, and Manny desperately tries to take care of Esperanza (“Essy”) on his own.

During Lucia’s pregnancy, Miranda moves to Switzerland with Stefan. After hearing about her sister’s hospitalization months later, Miranda rushes back to New York to make sure she is properly cared for. She actively tries to take part in her sister’s care, demanding the doctors use certain medications and ensuring that they refuse to release her until her medication is stabilized. Inside the hospital ward, Lucia becomes increasingly frustrated by her involuntary commitment. After several weeks of fighting and refusal to take her medication, Lucia agrees to take her pills at the promise of her eventual release. Back on her medication, Lucia’s mental health improves, and she is able to be released home.

In the months following her release, Lucia works to find her equilibrium. She attends meetings for new mothers and makes friends with a woman named Napi. She gets a small copywriting job, one that is unfulfilling to her, but that she dedicates herself to, nonetheless. She finds joy in her daughter as she watches her reach many milestones and grow into a happy child. Soon, however, Lucia becomes unsatisfied with her life and convinces Manny to move with her and Essy back to Ecuador so that they can be with his family there. Initially, the move to Ecuador brings Lucia immense happiness and contentment. Slowly, however, Lucia becomes unsatisfied with her new role as a woman in Ecuador, battling against the cultural differences there. Lucia, needing to do something other than caretaking, finds a writing job in a town a few hours away and begins to spend her time split between Manny’s family’s farm and the city.

Lucia’s anxiety and paranoia begin to gradually increase, and she becomes desperate to reunite with her ex-husband Yonah. Lucia creates a plan to take her daughter with her back to America by telling Manny that she is taking Essy to visit Miranda in Switzerland. Miranda discovers her plan and flies to Ecuador to stop Lucia from taking Essy away from her father. Lucia, in her anger and resentment, yells and throws things at Miranda. Once Lucia returns to the farm, her condition gradually becomes worse and Manny fears for her safety. He begins to crush up her pills into her tea to ensure that she is taking them. Lucia eventually finds her balance again and lives the next few years in peace.

Years later, Lucia has a miscarriage. The loss of her child causes her to fall into a deep depression. One day, she tells Manny that she is going to visit Yonah; she’s discovered that Yonah has been diagnosed with cancer and only has a few weeks to live. Lucia arrives in Minnesota at Yonah’s house and lives with him peacefully until he passes away. An unspecified amount of time passes, and Lucia is found dead in the forest near Yonah’s house. The circumstances of her death are left unclear.

By the end of the novel, Essy is grown up. She visits Miranda, who has also moved back to New York City. The pair discuss Lucia and make plans to see each other often in the future.