The Good Luck of Right Now

A Confederacy of Dunces removed 1,200 miles northeast. As with that novel, it's impossible to come away unamused by The Good Luck of Right Now's kindhearted presentation of the misadventures of a damaged soul * Philadelphia Inquirer * It's impossible not to love each of these deeply flawed characters . . . As funny as it is touching, Quick's latest effort is on par with The Silver Linings Playbook * USA Today * Another offbeat gem populated with eccentric, fallible, intensely human characters . . . expect high demand for this spiritually fueled midlife coming-of-age novel * Booklist * Part fairy tale and part vision quest . . . Bartholomew Neil is something of a cross between Forrest Gump and Ignatius J. Reilly . . . Quick, a master scene-setter, details Neil's personal tragedy in prose that is simultaneously funny and devastating . . . a page-turner * Boston Globe * Quick writes with an engaging intimacy, capturing his narrator's innocence and off-kilter philosophy, and the damaged souls in orbit around him * Publishers Weekly * A bildungsroman that charts an adventurous road-trip from Philadelphia to Canada, in a rented Ford Focus. Bartholomew, unemployed and friendless, meets an eccentric rabble along the way (including a troubled grief counsellor, an alcoholic priest and a love-interest librarian), who go some way to resolving his issues . . . a tender tale that manages to be both light-hearted and philosophical. * Financial Times * This book channels the same screwball sad sweetness we loved so much in The Silver Linings Playbook. * GQ * I loved this novel from its quirky and unconventional opening to its poignant, tear-inducing conclusion. -- Wally Lamb, author of SHE'S COME UNDONE and WE ARE WATER Funny, touching, wise, and ultimately life-affirming . . . If you loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, this book is for you. -- Garth Stein, author of THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN Original, compelling, uplifting. Quick celebrates the power of ordinary, flawed human beings to rescue themselves and each other. His writing is shot through with wit and humanity and an ultimately optimistic view of people, without ever becoming sentimental. -- Graeme Simsion, author of THE ROSIE PROJECT

From the bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook. Bartholomew Neil is thirty-nine and lost. He's lived his whole life, up till a few weeks ago, with his devoted mum, but now she has died Bartholomew has no idea how to be on his own. His grief counsellor, Wendy, says he needs to find his flock and leave the nest. But how does a man whose whole life has been grounded learn how to fly? So Bartholomew turns to Richard Gere, the man his mum adored from afar, in the hope he can offer some answers. In Bartholomew's letters to Richard Gere he explores philosophy and friendship, alien abduction and the mystery of women. The letters also reveal his heart-breaking need of a family, but when Bartholomew does manage to assemble a motley family of sorts, he seems to have taken on more than he bargained for . . .