Overview
One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2023
āBrave and nuanced . . . an act of tremendous compassion and a literary triumph.ā āThe New York Times
āImmensely emotional and unforgettably haunting.ā āThe Wall Street Journal
Acclaimed author Jonathan Rosenās haunting investigation of the forces that led his closest childhood friend, Michael Laudor, from the heights of brilliant promise to the forensic psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved. A story about friendship, love, and the price of self-delusion, The Best Minds explores the ways in which we understandāand fail to understandāmental illness.
When the Rosens moved to New Rochelle in 1973, Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor became inseparable. Both children of college professors, the boys were best friends and keen competitors, and, when they both got into Yale University, seemed set to join the American meritocratic elite.
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Michael blazed through college in three years, graduating summa cum laude and landing a top-flight consulting job. But all wasnāt as it seemed. One day, Jonathan received the call: Michael had suffered a serious psychotic break and was in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital.
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Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Michael was still battling deluĀsions when he traded his halfway house for Yale Law School. Featured in The New York Times as a role model genius, he sold a memoir, with film rights to Ron Howard. But then Michael, in the grip of an unshakeable paranoid fantasy, stabbed his girlfriend Carrie to death and became a front-page story of an entirely different sort.
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Tender, funny, and harrowing by turns, The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosenās magnificent and heartbreaking account of good intentions and tragic outcomes whose significance will echo widely.
This book title, The Best Minds (A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions), ISBN: 9780143132899, by Jonathan Rosen, published by Penguin Publishing Group (April 16, 2024) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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