Anything Is Good

Two Bronx boys take radically different paths in a novel about the limits of genius and the loss of home, by a "terrifically gifted" author (Anita Shreve, New York Times-bestselling author of The Stars Are Fire).

Ralph Silverman was a childhood buddy, a foreign film buff, a victim of bullies, a boy genius. He held long conversations with his pet parakeet and spent countless hours on a computer, creating mesmerizing music and solving problems in philosophy. He was a friend of great scholars and the son of a wealthy outer-borough businessman with shady associates and a second family. And, as he begins to take over the story from the narrator, he has found himself in South Florida, physically abused and then expelled into an unfamiliar world--with a broken pair of glasses, no money, and no shoes--by the distant cousin his sister left him with before disappearing forever.

From the celebrated author of Searching for Bobby Fischer, Anything is Good is a hypnotically compelling tale of a man haunted by the fate of his childhood buddy, and of that friend's pleasures and misfortunes as he navigates an unhoused life--a life more complex and dramatic than a bypasser might ever imagine.

Praise for Fred Waitzkin's previous books

"Very few writers can deliver a story with this much heart...a great novel."--Sebastian Junger

"Waitzkin's propulsive narrative makes for compelling reading from first page to last."--Gabriel Byrne

"A gem of a book."--The New York Times