Anything Is Good

Two Bronx boys take radically different paths in this novel about the limits of genius and the loss of home, by a “terrifically gifted” author (Anita Shreve, New York Times –bestselling author).

Ralph Silverman was a foreign film buff, a victim of bullies, and 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 secret second family. And, as he begins to take over the story from the narrator, Ralph finds himself in South Florida, physically abused and expelled into a frightening world of the unhoused—with a broken pair of glasses, no money, and no shoes.

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.

“ Anything Is Good . . . offers a deeply affecting dive into the lives of the unhoused. Its shifting perspective and changing narrative voice builds to a clarion call for greater empathy and understanding.” —Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March

“ Anything Is Good is the best portrait of homelessness I’ve read since George Orwell’s Down and Out in London and Paris. . . . Superbly written.” —Gabriel Byrne

Praise for Fred Waitzkin’s previous books

“Very few writers can deliver a story with this much heart . . . A great novel.” —Sebastian Junger

“I’ve seldom been so captivated by a book.” —Tom Stoppard

“A gem of a book.” — The New York Times