A New York Times bestseller ▪ A Library Journal Best Books of 2015 Pick ▪ A St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Books of 2015 Pick ▪A GoodReads Top Ten Fiction Book of 2015 ▪ A People Magazine Great Read
From New York Times bestselling author and neuroscientist Lisa Genova comes a “heartbreaking…very human novel” (Matthew Thomas, author of We Are Not Ourselves) that does for Huntington’s disease what her debut novel Still Alice did for Alzheimer’s.
Joe O’Brien is a forty-three-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s disease.
Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure, and each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.
Praised for writing that “explores the resilience of the human spirit” (San Francisco Chronicle), Lisa Genova has once again delivered a novel as powerful and unforgettable as the human insights at its core.
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“Skipp Sudduth’s performance of Genova’s exploration of Huntington’s disease makes the science of this inherited, incurable, degenerative nerve disease very personal…Sudduth’s no-nonsense delivery and unemotional handling of this highly emotional subject are exactly right. As the O’Brien children learn that each has a 50/50 chance of inheriting the illness and that a simple blood test can tell if they have the gene, Sudduth makes their awakening to the deadly possibilities palpable…Clear-eyed and heartrending, this is top-notch listening.”
— AudioFile
“Genova…compassionately details how an illness—this time Huntington’s disease—can destroy not only the afflicted but those who love them as well.”
— People magazine“This novel of siblings rocked by their father’s Huntington’s disease is a total tearjerker, but ultimately it’s a tribute to family love.”
— Glamour“An intimate, heartbreaking look at life with Huntington’s disease.”
— Marie Claire“An unsparing, heart-piercing portrait…compelling…enlightening.”
— Washington Post“Compelling and masterful.”
— New York Journal of BooksBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Lisa Genova is the author of several New York Times bestsellers, including Inside the O’Briens, Still Alice, and Remember. She graduated from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. Still Alice was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart. She has been featured in major media and travels worldwide speaking about the neurological diseases that she writes about. Her TED talk, “What You Can Do To Prevent Alzheimer’s,” has been viewed more than five million times.