The Greatest Possible Good

by Ben Brooks

ISBN: 9781398542211

Published: 2025-07-15

The hilarious, thought-provoking new novel from the Somerset Maugham and British Book Award-winning Ben Brooks. 'A sharp-witted tragicomedy about money, morality, and a family teetering on the brink. A splendidly funny novel.' Jenny Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street '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...