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A novelists gripping investigation of the forces that led his childhood best friend from academic stardom to the psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved

When the Rosens moved to New Rochelle New York in 1973 Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor became inseparable Both children of professors the boys were best friends and fierce rivals who soon followed each other to Yale University

Michael blazed through Yale in three years graduating summa cum laude and landing a topflight consulting job Then one day Jonathan received a devastating call Michael had suffered a psychotic break and was in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital

Diagnosed with schizophrenia Michael was still in hospital when he learned hed been accepted to Yale Law School and living in a halfway house when he decided against all odds to enroll Still battling delusions he managed to graduate and after his triumphant story was featured in The New York Times sold a memoir for a vast sum Ron Howard bought film rights completing the dream for Michael and his tirelessly supportive girlfriend Carrie and Brad Pitt was set to star But then Michael in the grip of psychosis committed a horrific act that made him a frontpage story of an entirely different sort

The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosens powerful account of an American tragedy set in the final decades of the American century an era that coincided with the emptying out of state mental hospitals It is a story about the bonds of friendship the price of delusion and the mystery of identity Tender funny and harrowing by turns The Best Minds is both a beautifully rendered coming of age story and an indictment of the profound neglect of mental illness in our society

202 Jonathan Rosen P2023 Penguin Audio