The Best Minds: A Story Of Friendship, Madness, & The Tragedy Of Good Intentions
Reading Jewish Lives
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1h 2m
Named a Top 10 Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic, and one of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2023, The Best Minds is a haunting and deeply moving memoir that investigates the forces that led author Jonathan Rosen's closest childhood friend, Michael Laudor — who was widely celebrated for overcoming a severe psychotic disorder — from the height of promise to the killing of his fiancée. A story about friendship, love, and the bonds of community, The Best Minds explores the ways in which we understand—and fail to understand—mental illness.
Jonathan Rosen is the author, most recently, of The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions, which was named a top ten book of the year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Slate and People Magazine, and chosen by Barack Obama as one of his Favorite Books of 2023. He is also the author the novels Eve’s Apple and Joy Comes in the Morning, and two additional non-fiction books: The Talmud and the Internet: A Journey Between Worlds and The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature. His essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and numerous anthologies. He created the culture section of the Forward newspaper, which he edited for ten years, and created and edited the Jewish Encounters book series published by Nextbook\Schocken
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