Inside the O'Briens; Lisa Genova
Gallery Books - April 2015
(Description)
From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author and neuroscientist Lisa Genova comes a powerful new novel that does for Huntington’s Disease what her debut Still Alice did for Alzheimer’s.
Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-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. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. 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. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?
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” (The San Francisco Chronicle), Lisa Genova has once again delivered a novel as powerful and unforgettable as the human insights at its core.
Do you plan to read this one?
I've requested this book. Hope resTrictions don't get in the way. Sounds so good.
ReplyDeleteHave done - it's really good. I really love how Lisa Genova humanizes sad medical conditions while still educating about them.
ReplyDeleteThis one has my interest (mainly because I liked We Are Not Ourselves a lot and it sounds a bit similar?) - I'll keep a lookout for your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds good but it should have been O'Brians!
ReplyDeleteI'm reading this one now. It's very good, and I love all books by Lisa Genova :)
ReplyDeleteI've got my ARC sitting on my nightstand! I'd love to start in on it right now, but I'm really enjoying my current read (The Next Time You See Me by Holly Goddard Jones).
ReplyDeleteThis looks good, I would like to read it!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a powerful one...I have yet to read a book by Genova, but Still Alice is on my shelf!
ReplyDeleteSounds really good! New author to me.
ReplyDeleteI have this on NetGalley having requested it since I enjoyed Still Alice so much. But, it will be awhile before I get to this, as I try to read the long list for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize this March and April.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely like to read this one, because I read her first two books and thought they were outstanding. I haven't yet read her third, Love Anthony.
ReplyDeleteDiane, I haven't read any books by Lisa Genova. This one sounds really good. I hope you are enjoying the first day of spring! :)
ReplyDeleteI have that ARC and it is next on my list! I have never read this author, but I have heard great things. And the premise sounds so interesting.
ReplyDelete