The Best Minds

A story about friendship, love, and the price of self-delusion, The Best Minds explores the ways in which we understand - and fail to understand - mental illness

"Immensely emotional and unforgettably haunting, The Best Minds is the story of a deep friendship shattered by the nightmare of psychosis."  -  Richard McNally, The Wall Street 

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, seemed set to join the American meritocratic elite. But all wasn’t as it seemed. 

The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosen's brilliant and heartbreaking account of an American tragedy. It is a story about the bonds of family, friendship, and community; the promise of intellectual achievement; and the lure of utopian solutions. 

"Rosen cannot release Laudor, but he has rehabilitated and rehumanized him on the page while honouring his victim. The Best Minds is too a thoughtfully built, deeply sourced indictment of a society that prioritizes profit, quick fixes and happy endings over the long slog of care... Brave and nuanced."   -  Alexander Jacobs, The New York Times

Tender, funny, and harrowing by turns, at times almost unbearably sad, The Best Minds is an extreme version of a story that is tragically familiar to all too many. In the hands of a writer of Jonathan Rosen's gifts and dedication, its significance will echo widely.