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Inside the O'Briens

A Novel

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Inside the O'Briens

Written by: Lisa Genova
Narrated by: Skipp Sudduth
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About this listen

From award-winning, New York Times best-selling author 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 44-year-old Boston police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, a proud father of four children in their 20s, and a respected, seasoned law enforcement officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to aging and the cumulative physical and psychological 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 it is genetic. 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 their potential futures in their father's escalating symptoms, the children struggle with the questions this test imposes on their young adult lives, including his youngest, 21-year-old Katie. 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, he struggles to maintain his identity and sense of purpose. How can he find hope in a situation that feels hopeless? How can he find courage without any armor or weapons? What else might he be able to pass down to his children other than a fatal disease? Where is the honor in living and dying with Huntington's?

©2015 Lisa Genova (P)2015 Simon & Schuster
Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Genetics
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What the critics say

"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.... Clear-eyed and heartrending, this is top-notch listening." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about Inside the O'Briens

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Great

As someone who was diagnosed with HD this year, the characters did a great job of describing thoughts and feelings. Well written book!

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Beautifully written

A difficult story beautifully told. The narrator was perfect for this story. I laughed out loud in parts and cried in others. I listened non stop and learned along with the O’Brians about HD

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Great Read

I really enjoyed this as I have other books by Lisa Genova. Narrator had a fantastic voice too.

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Brilliant

A beautiful, admittedly somewhat sad novel.
Performance is outstanding.
The story is beautifully written, yet educational as well.

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Amazing book.

I really loved this book, and listened to the entire thing in a long weekend while cleaning my apartment! As a new doctor, I have long considered Huntington’s to be one of the cruelest of diseases in existence, and it was very striking to hear the very believable story of a family struck by this horrific illness. I thought the characters were very well-developed, in particular Joe and Katie. Reading through others’ reviews on audible, I saw a lot of people complained about the “foul language” in this book, but I thought it wasn’t overused at all, and was actually very fitting given the characters and their situation. If you know how horrible Huntington’s is, it wont surprise you to hear the characters swear in frustration and in pain with the realization of how it will affect them and their loved ones.

I will definitely recommend this book to others. It makes you reflect on how fortunate you are to have your health, if you do, and how fragile and precious life really is.

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Love this book!

Lisa Genova continues to educate us on medical issues from a very human place. She writes about the people, the families, their fears, their hopes, their courage and resilience. And better yet, she does it in a down to earth, punch in the heart kind of way. No sugar coating here.

Loved this as an audiobook! Created interesting discussions on my roadtrip and just lost myself in the story when listening alone.

#Audible1

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excellent like all Genova's novels.

Be prepared for a fair amount of swearing. It suits the character in the end. I couldn't wait to get back to the book and thought about the family's experience often.

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Crude Repulsive language

we quit the book because we felt the bad language was very Repulsive but we would have enjoyed finishing the story

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