Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova

By: Lisa Genova

Genre: Literature and Fiction

Gallery Books
January 1, 2016
On Sale: January 5, 2016
Featuring: Katie; Joe O’Brien
354 pages
ISBN: 1476717796
EAN: 9781476717791
Kindle: B00LQMDZPI
Paperback / e-Book (reprint)

Book Summary

From the New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice Lisa Genova comes a powerful and transcendent new novel about a family struggling with the impact of Huntington’s disease.

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.

EVERY NOTE PLAYED

EVERY NOTE PLAYED

February 1, 2019

INSIDE THE O'BRIENS

INSIDE THE O'BRIENS

January 1, 2016

INSIDE THE O'BRIENS

INSIDE THE O'BRIENS

April 1, 2015

LEFT NEGLECTED

LEFT NEGLECTED

January 1, 2011

STILL ALICE

STILL ALICE

January 1, 2009