‘The Greatest Possible Good’: Where Lies the Highest Path?

A wealthy family breaks apart when its patriarch falls down a mineshaft and decides he wants to save the world.

Ben Brooks writes of the efforts of a family to change for the better, in “The Greatest Possible Good.” Simon & Schuster

One of the best ways to explore a complicated subject is to write a story about it. Stories can’t get much more complicated than showing how to live a virtuous way of life.

Author Ben Brooks has attempted to explore this complicated subject with “The Greatest Possible Good,” a touching and funny story about how each member of a miserable family struggles with their happiness and how to make the world a better place.

Meet the Chadwicks

The Chadwick family, parents Arthur and Yara, and their children Evangeline, 17, and Emil, 15, are having dinner in their luxurious, 600-year-old home near Stroud, England. It’s filled with the latest smart home technology and reclaimed antiques tastefully repurposed for decor accents. Everyone is eating food that probably costs an arm and a leg. While the home may be of the highest caliber, the people inside are quite another story.