Jonathan Rosen with his acclaimed account of friendship and mental illness.

Both children of professors, they were best friends and fierce rivals who followed each other to Yale, which Michael Laudor blazed through in three years.

Then Jonathan Rosen received a devastating call: Michael was in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, his law school graduation made The New York Times with film rights snapped up by Ron Howard. But then in the grip of psychosis he committed a horrific act that made him a front-page story of an entirely different sort. The novelist and The Talmud and the Internet author discusses The Best Minds, described by The Guardian as ‘Extraordinary…a remarkable meditation on friendship, success, madness and violence’.

Buy a copy of The Best Minds by Jonathan Rosen.

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval. 

Digital events will take place over Zoom, with an event link sent to bookers 24 hours in advance of the event and a reminder email 30 minutes before the event starts. Ticket holders for digital events will also be sent a link to a recording of the event, available to watch until the end of March.

Book Week 24 Digi-Pass gives access to all 16 online streaming events for £39.50.

About the speakers:

Jonathan Rosen is the author of two novels: Eve’s Apple and Joy Comes in the Morning, and two non-fiction books: The Talmud and the Internet and The Life of the Skies. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic and numerous anthologies. He lives with his family in New York City.

Frank Tallis is a clinical psychologist and writer. The TV series Vienna Blood is based on his psychoanalytic detective novels. His latest non-fiction book is Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind.