An Underachiever’s Diary

Buy Now Buy Now

Share on Goodreads

“An unflinching account… marked by financial and romantic uncertainty, [Anastas’] challenges and frustrations will be familiar to anyone who has ever dodged a debt collector, borrowed money from friends, or felt they were falling irreversibly behind.”

Michael McGrath, The Billfold


Too Good to be True

A Memoir

The most affecting father-son story since Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, this astonishing memoir is a gut-wrenching account of a life at the crossroads. When he was three, Benjamin Anastas found himself in his mother’s fringe-therapy group, a sign around his neck: TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. The phrase haunts him at forty, when everything around him lies in tatters.

Broke, his promising literary career gone, Anastas is hounded by debt collectors as he tries to repair a life ripped apart by the spectacular implosion of his marriage, which ended when his pregnant wife left him for another man. Anastas’s fierce love for his young son forces him to confront his own childhood, fraught with mental illness, divorce, and the fumes of hippiedom. Charged with rage, despair, humor, and hope, this unforgettable book gets to the core of what it means to be a father.

In the UK, order Too Good To Be True at these retailers:

Kobo

Apple

Amazon