The hilarious thought-provoking new novel from the Somerset Maugham and British Book
Award-winning Ben Brooks. ' Brooks is a frighteningly young talent.' Tim Key '
I love Ben Brooks.' Matt Haig How much should one person give to make the world a better
place? How much can one family take? “I’d like you to imagine that you’re walking to work
one day and you come upon a child drowning in a pool of water. But imagine that someone refused
to jump in after the child on the grounds that it would ruin his three-hundred-pound pair of
John Lobb loafers. We’d consider them utterly immoral would we not?’ Arthur Candlewick
spends three days in a disused mineshaft with only his son’s drug stash a book on the concept
of ‘effective altruism’ and a bottle of medium-priced Bordeaux for company. When he emerges he
has made the life-changing decision to become a good man. Deciding to sell the family
timber business and give away his wealth to charity Arthur’s family become convinced that he
has lost his mind. His university-bound daughter Evangeline wants to change the world but
perhaps not at the cost of her own privileged life. His son Emil good at maths and not
much else becomes more distant than ever. And his wife Yara who arrives at airports four
hours early and fears that AI and climate change will leave her children unemployed just wants
the doctor to run another brain scan on her husband. Incisive hilarious and unflinchingly
human The Greatest Possible Good asks fundamental questions about what it means to live a good
life while introducing the world to one of the great families of contemporary literature.
‘Ben Brooks is a magical imp who pumps out dark nuggets of poetry and makes you snort with
laughter.’ Noel Fielding ‘Brooks has the timing of a genius stand-up comic.’ Richard Milward
‘Ben Brooks is a writer who genuinely excites me.’ Colin Herd 3:AM Magazine
