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Why did NPR’s popular librarian Nancy Pearl pick The Silver Linings Playbook as one of summer’s best reads for 2009?

"Aawww shucks!” Pearl said. “I know that’s hardly a usual way to begin a book review, but it was my immediate response to finishing Matthew Quick’s heartwarming, humorous and soul-satisfying first novel . . . This book makes me smile.”

Meet Pat Peoples. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure him a happy ending—the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. (It might not come as a surprise to learn that Pat has spent several years in a mental health facility.)

The problem is, Pat’s now home, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing; he’s being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany; his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of therapy. Plus, he’s being haunted by Kenny G!

As the award-winning novelist Justin Cronin put it: “Tender, soulful, hilarious, and true, The Silver Linings Playbook is a wonderful debut.”

Matthew Quick earned his M.F.A. in creative criting at Goddard College. He lives in the Philadelphia area with his wife and their greyhound.

The Silver Linings Playbook is the riotous and poignant story of how one man regains his memory and comes to terms with his wife's betrayal. After returning home to Philadelphia from several years in a mental health facility, Pat Peoples tries to make sense of his new and disorienting life. Matthew Quick takes us inside Pat's mind, deftly showing us the world from his distorted yet endearing perspective. The result is a touching and funny novel that helps us look at both depression and love in a wonderfully refreshing way.

"Pat People is the protagonist and the narrator of The Silver Linings Playbook. I found him compelling and fascinating, and I found myself not only caring about him but rooting for him unashamedly, which, for an author is, I believe, what they mean by scoring a tour de force. Pat Peoples' author is Matthew Quick. This is his debut novel and, as the professionals like to say, it suggests promising 'promise.'"—Bill Lyon, The Philadelphia Inquirer

"[A] plucky debut . . . Quick fills the pages with so mc uh absurd wit and true feeling that it's impossible not to cheer for his unlikely hero."—Allison Lynn, People magazine

"Tender, soulful, hilarious, and true, The Silver Linings Playbook is a wonderful debut."—Justin Cronin, PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author of Mary and O'Neil and The Summer Guest

"A funny, touching performance on the part of Mr. Quick—and the beginning, I hope, of a big career."—Dave King, author of The Ha-Ha

"Matthew Quick is a natural storyteller, and his Silver Linings Playbook—honest, wise, and compassionate—is a story that carries the reader along on a gust of optimism. Without shying away from the difficulties of domestic life, it charts a route past those challenges and leaves us with a lingering sense of hope. More than a promising debut or an inspiring love story, this novel offers us the gift of healing."—Roland Merullo, author of In Reverethat, in Those Days

"Entertaining and heartfelt and authentic, The Silver Linings Playbook magically binds together love, madness, Philadelphia Eagles football, faith, family, and hard-earned hope in a story taht is both profound and wonderfully beguiling. This is a splendid novel, written by a big-time talent."—Martin Clark, author of The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living and The Legal Limit

"There are a slew of debuts out there that propelled their unknown authors to greatness: think Bright Lights Big City, Fight Club, Mysteries of Pittsburgh. The Silver Linings Playbook, the first effort from former Philadelphia teacher Matthew Quick, may do the same for this author. At times heartbreaking and funny, the book opens with the narrator, Pat People, leaving a mental health facility in Baltimore with little recollection of how he got there. Taking up residency in his parent's house, he lives in the basement, spending most of the day working out to get into top physical shape for what he hopes will be a reunion with his wife. Pat slowly starts to allow other activities to seep into his life, like following the Philadelphia Eagles and establishing upon a friendship with a fellow survivor of emotional breakdown, the widow down the street. Quick has a true talent for storytelling. Not since One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has an author to tackle mental illness with as much humor and humanity. Though it tough to color the topic of life-changing emotional breakdowns with laughter, he pulls it off effortlessly. Though we're only nine months into 2008, it seems pretty obvious that Quick has turned in one of the year's best debut novels. (A)"—Insite magazine

"Pat Peoples' mother has brought him home from the 'neural health facility' where he's been staying during 'apart time' from his wife, Nikki. Pat doesn't know why they are separated, believes their reunion is inevitable and thinks he's been gone a few months; in reality it's been four years. He tries to stay upbeat: 'I don't want to stay in the bad place, where no one believes in silver linings or love or happy endings . . . but I am also afraid the people from my old life will not be as enthusiastic as I am now trying to be.' His mother sets him up with a therapist, Dr. Patel. The first hint at a reason for apart time appears in the doctor's waiting room, when Pat hears Songbird by Kenny G, and the 'evil bright soprano saxophone' sends him into a rage, screaming, flipping over chairs, yelling at the receptionist. But Pat likes Dr. Patel, who turns out to be a major Philadelphia Eagles fan—he goes to tailgate parties in a bus labeled 'Asian Invasion' with a portrait of Brian Dawkins painted on the hood. Being an Eagles fan is important to Pat, whose father's moods revolve around the team. He also witnesses his mother's pain, as she waits to see what temper her husband will be in based on a game's outcome. His father's mania is not unusual in Philadelphia, where Eagles fandom is a blood sport, something Pat gets caught up in at a tailgate party, when he attacks a Giants fan while defending his brother Jake. Soon after his move back home, Pat is befriended in an odd and cautious way by Tiffany, who silently waits for Pat when he comes out to run (he works out 10 hours a day), and follows him at a distance. They begin a wary alliance, and she tells him she's scouting his work ethic, his endurance and his ability to persevere, but won't tell him why. Friendship, family, connection and discovery intertwine in a marvelous way in this appealing novel. Pat thinks that just when a movie's main character believes all is lost, something surprising happens, leading to a happy ending, so he continues to hope that he'll be reunited with Nikki, that God will not let him down. As Pat doggedly practices being kind rather than right, grace enters his life in unexpected ways ('Miracles happen on Christmas, Pat. Everybody knows that the.'), and he realizes that life is not a movie. In refusing to be defeated by pessimism, Pat learns about true silver linings, not pretty happy endings."—Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Awareness

"[A] touching and funny debut . . . [This] offbeat story has all the markings of a crowd-pleaser."—Publishers Weekly

"Matthew Quick has created quite teh heartbreaker of a novel in The Silver Linings Playbook."—Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

In the six months that followed his leaving teaching and the Philadelphia area, Matthew Quick floated down the Peruvian Amazon and formed ‘The Bardbarians’ (a two-man literary circle), backpacked around Southern Africa, hiked to the bottom of a snowy Grand Canyon, soul-searched, and finally began writing full-time.

Matthew earned his Creative Writing MFA through Goddard College. He has since returned to the Philadelphia area, where he lives with his wife and their greyhound.

Praise for The Silver Linings Playbook…

"Matthew Quick has created quite the heartbreaker of a novel in The Silver Linings Playbook." — from the Kirkus First Fiction Issue

"Matthew Quick is a natural storyteller, and his SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK--honest, wise, and compassionate--is a story that carries the reader along on a gust of optimism. Without shying away from the difficulties of domestic life, it charts a route past those challenges, and leaves us with a lingering sense of hope. More than a promising debut or an inspiring love story, this novel offers us the gift of healing." — Roland Merullo, author of In Revere, In Those Days

"You don’t have to be a Philadelphia Eagles’ fan (or even from Philadelphia) to appreciate talented newcomer Matthew Quick’s page-turning paean to the power of hope over experience—the belief that this will all work out somehow, despite the long odds that life deals us. Tender, soulful, hilarious, and true, THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK is a wonderful debut." —Justin Cronin, PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author of Mary and O'Neil and The Summer Guest

"The hero of Matthew Quick's first novel is Pat Peoples, amnesiac optimist and absolute original, whose dysfunctional journey takes him from big-league fandom to competitive dance and a host of other modern preoccupations. This is a funny, touching performance on the part of Mr. Quick—and the beginning, I hope, of a big career." —Dave King, author of The Ha-Ha

"Entertaining and heartfelt and authentic, The Silver Linings Playbook magically binds together love, madness, Philadelphia Eagles football, faith, family and hard-earned hope into a story that is both profound and wonderfully beguiling. This is a splendid novel, written by a big-time talent." —Martin Clark, author of The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living and The Legal Limit

"I loved The Silver Linings Playbook. It is warm, funny, and moving."  —Shawn McBride, author of Green Grass Grace