The Shoe on the Roof

Written by Will Ferguson

Narrated by Jacques Roy

Meet Thomas Rosanoff: med student and researcher.
Meet his subjects: three homeless men who believe they are God.

Ever since his girlfriend ended things, Thomas’s life has been on a downward spiral. A gifted medical student, he has spent his entire adulthood struggling to escape the legacy of his father, an esteemed psychiatrist who used him as a test subject when he was a boy. Thomas lived his entire childhood watched over by researchers lurking behind one-way glass.

But now the tables have turned. Thomas is the researcher, and he’s convinced an experiment he has concocted will cure three homeless men of their delusional claims. When the experiment careens out of control, however, Thomas is forced to confront the voices echoing in his own head and the ghosts of his own past.

An explosively imaginative tour de force, The Shoe on the Roof questions our definitions of sanity and madness while exploring the magical reality that lies just beyond the world of scientific fact.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: Apr 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9781982107420

Will Ferguson

WILL FERGUSON is a three-time winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour. His novels include 419, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and The Finder, which won the 2021 Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Fiction. He lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Reviews for The Shoe on the Roof

[smits_52 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I do like the way Will Ferguson writes. I really enjoyed his other novel "419" probably more than this one but this one is good too. Ferguson writes with humor and insight into people. It's a wonder how he can bring humour into a sad and terrible story about homeless men with delusions about being Jesus. Our main character Thomas has to face his own sanity and his past. There are many allusions to his childhood. He was raised by his father as an experiment for a novel he wrote called " The Good son". Yet the reader never learns too much about this time in his life. Into the story is woven some mystery and who done it which is fun too. Will Ferguson explores the depths of the human mind, in a beautifully written story that carries with it a certain sense of madness throughout.

[ldvoorberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fast but intriguing read about a Neuro-med student dealing with his own crazy childhood, tries to win back the love of his life and ends up conducting a wild psychological experiment with three men who have Messiah complexes (they really think they are Jesus). The book is an interesting mix of neuroscience, psychology, theology, and fiction. What is madness? What is belief? Is there a cure? All with a bit of tongue in cheek: how far can we go with experiments?

[paradiseporch · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The tone of this novel is almost whimsical and it took me a while to figure out the seriousness of the story. I suspect that it was the author’s intent to keep the reader slightly off-balance while he established the underpinnings of the plot.Amazon calls this “the startling, funny, and heartbreaking story of a psychological experiment gone wrong” and says that “The Shoe on the Roof is an explosively imaginative tour de force, a novel that questions our definitions of sanity and madness, while exploring the magical reality that lies just beyond the world of scientific fact.”

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book! I like the quirky premise: take three subjects who each believes he is the Messiah and bring them together in a form of group therapy: they'll have to confront the reality that they can't all be right, won't they?Thomas is a medical student whose father rose to fame in the psychiatric field by writing a detailed book about Thomas's upbringing. Thomas became known as "the boy in the box" because his entire childhood was an experiment on the effects of various stimuli on him. Thomas has just broken up with Amy, and in an attempt to get her back, decides to "cure" her brother who thinks he is Jesus Christ. When Thomas discovers two other men claiming the same thing, he launches his group therapy idea. Dad takes over, and things take a downward spiral.This book is funny at times (did you know that Connecticut is mentioned in the bible?) but also very thought-provoking as it explores the nature of human emotions and beliefs. Thomas and the three patients are wonderful characters and the ending is near perfect....just the right amount of wrap up and ambiguity for my tastes.

[critterbug_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. I found the psychiatric workings of the mind very interesting and the concept of bringing the three 'messiahs' together intriguing. And how he centered this around the love that he lost and his twisted childhood just added to the story. I never knew which way the story was going to go so that kept my interest throughout. This is the first book of Ferguson's I've read and plan to read some more. It was one of the more original stories I've read in a long time.

[chapterthree-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

a story of madness and an idea to cure madness with new research. When the tables are turned on the researcher, he becomes unbalanced and questions his own sanity.

[carole888fort · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy of The Shoe on the Roof by Will Ferguson in exchange for an honest review. Thomas Rosanoff, a medical student, has been dumped by his girlfriend. He has had an unusual childhood: his father, a psychiatrist, used his son as a test subject for all of his young years. He was observed by researchers via two-way glass and famously became known as "The Boy in the Box". As a means to attract his girlfriend back into his life, Thomas becomes a researcher of three homeless men who believe individually that they are the messiah. One of the research subjects happens to be the brother of his ex-girlfriend. Upon finding out what his son is involved in, Rosanoff Sr. takes control of the experiment, causing more problems for his son. What happens to Thomas makes up the second half of the novel. I held back one star in my rating because the book too often reads like a psychiatry textbook. Also, the book is marketed as being funny but I found most of it to be sad and disturbing. I am happy to have read this book but would not re-read. A good book for students of psychiatry.