The Optimist

Nick Palmer is supposed to change the world. His wife would settle for him being on time. Nick coaches hockey, plays piano in a bar band, and refuses to read his future. In a world that consults predictions before making a decision, he prefers to muddle through. Then a private assessment Nick has a 94.7 percent chance of causing the century’s largest change in human behaviour within thirty days. Suddenly strangers want answers. Companies want his attention. Everyone seems convinced that an ordinary man with an extraordinary prediction must know something they don’t. Nick would like to believe them. But a careless story told on television costs him a teenager’s trust. At home, Beth is tired of sharing her husband with everyone who needs him. The more people look to Nick for hope, the harder it becomes to admit what he’s getting wrong. With the world counting down, Nick is becoming famous for believing in people—and losing the trust of those closest to him. Before he can live up to a future nobody understands, he has to face what his good intentions are costing them. Funny, intimate, and unsettling, The Optimist explores marriage, public attention, and the uncomfortable distance between wanting to do good and doing it.