The Greatest Possible Good

ΓÇ£A sharp-witted tragicomedy about money,moralityand a family teetering on the brink. A splendidly funny novel.ΓÇ¥ ΓÇöJenny JacksonNew York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street For readers of Paul MurrayΓÇÖs The Bee Sting and Jenny JacksonΓÇÖs Pineapple Streetan irresistibly funny and incisive novel about a wealthy family that is confident in its good intentionsΓÇöuntil the discovery that their patriarch has secretly given all their money to charity ruins their lives. Meet the Candlewicks. Seventeen-year-old Evangeline (a.k.a Dubbin)wants to change the worldhas a penchant for throwing fake blood during protestsand despairs at the smug complacency of the rest of her family. Emil is fifteenand a painfully shy math prodigy who has just begun dabbling in narcotics. Their motherYaraarrives at airports four hours early and fears that AI and climate change will leave her children unemployed and unable to go outside for longer than ten minutes. AndArthurthe fathera hapless and always neutral manwho canΓÇÖt decide if he is a good person or a doormatΓÇöforgiving and understanding or weak and terrified. Their comfortable lives are thrown into disarray when Arthur walks out into the woods one night for a stroll in his calfskin slippers only to fall down an abandoned mineshaft. Disoriented and unable to movehe remains there for three days with only a bottle of mid-range Bordeauxhis sonΓÇÖs confiscated stash of LSDand his daughterΓÇÖs book on the concept of Effective Altruism for company. When he is rescuedhe is a man transformed. Determined to give away all of his wealth and devote the rest of his life to the (statistically proven) most worthy causeshis metamorphosis shocks his family and triggers a chain of events that will have far-reaching and unforeseen consequences for them all. Equal parts hilarious and achingly humanThe Greatest Possible Good spans ten years in the lives of the Candlewicksasking universal questions about what it means to live a good life and if there is a ΓÇ£rightΓÇ¥ way to be a good personwhile introducing the world to one of the most memorable and dysfunctional families in contemporary literature.