A poignant story that tugs at your heartstrings, “Inside the O’Briens 
A compelling read from the first page to the last, author Lisa Genova did not mince words in her description of Huntington’s Disease. The story is beautifully told with a sensitivity that only a writer who has mastered the craft can give. And that’s what Ms. Genova gave her readers in “Inside the O’Briens
The book description below says it all. If I add another line, it will be redundant. This is a book that is hard to put down once you started. Your heart goes out to the O’Briens who is just an ordinary family one day; then the next day, they have to find within themselves the courage to keep on living.
You admire the O’Brien’s courage in one instant and then the next you feel their despair. Your heart goes out to them. And when you finish the book you realize that though it is a work of fiction, there are real families out there who are faced with the challenges of Huntington’s Disease in their daily lives.
“Inside the O’Briens
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.
