The book was released on January 6, 2009, with an initial print run of 250,000 copies. Not even a year later, Genova signed with Simon and Schuster. Lisa Genova and Julianne Moore at the Sony Pictures Classics dinner the night before the Oscars ( photo source) In the meantime, Lisa started her own blog and took to social media. She reached out to the National Alzheimer’s Association, who loved it, endorsed it, shared it on their website, and asked Genova to blog for them. Genova was inspired to write Still Alice because of her grandmother’s experience with Alzheimer’s she was convinced the story would resonate with the millions touched by the disease. She didn’t believe them: she self-published Still Alice in 2007, and set out to find her market. Genova completed her novel anyway, then spent a year shopping it to literary agents and editors, who all told her it wouldn’t sell. Her colleagues said writing fiction would be career suicide. in neuroscience from Harvard, was advised not to write the novel at all, or at least not to publish it. The story begins with the book’s path to publication. In fact, the book ends on a hopeful note.īut there’s controversy surrounding that hopeful ending.

Terrifying, yes, but not depressing, and surprisingly beautiful.

(I had similar fears about The Sweetness of Forgetting and The Geography of Memory, both of which I loved. Because of my family’s history with Alzheimer’s disease, I was afraid it would hit too close to home and be horribly depressing.

I was hesitant to read this novel, which has been described as uncannily realistic: the novel tells the story of Alice Howland, a 50-year-old Harvard professor who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. My free Oyster trial gave me the nudge I needed to read it now instead of someday. I added Lisa Genova’s Still Alice to my TBR list last year, but didn’t read it until a few weeks ago.

Book about alice with alzheimer's