Still Alice

By: Lisa Genova

Narrated by: Lisa Genova

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

What if every memory you've ever had will be erased from your mind, and you have no choice but to carry on...powerless to stop it?

Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At 50 years old, she's a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she begins to grow disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life - and her relationship with her family and the world - forever.

At once beautiful and terrifying, this extraordinary debut novel by Lisa Genova is a moving and vivid depiction of life with early-onset Alzheimer's Disease that is as compelling as A Beautiful Mind and as unforgettable as Ordinary People.

©2009 Lisa Genova (P)2009 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"After I read Still Alice, I wanted to stand up and tell a train full of strangers, 'You have to get this book.'" ( Boston Globe)
"With grace and compassion, Lisa Genova writes about the enormous white emptiness created by Alzheimer's." ( The Improper Bostonian)
"A masterpiece that will touch lives in ways none of us can even imagine." ( Alzheimer's Daily News)

A hopeful story about a sad disease

I Loved the descriptions that Lisa used to explain what Alice was thinking and feeling. I feel like I have a better understanding of what a person with Alzheimer's may be experiencing. It is more hopeful than I had originally thought because that person may not have the same personality or memories but they still experience joy and emotions. It was an insightful book.

Amazing story!

Thoroughly enjoyed this story.

Just wish the author didn't narrate, I didn't enjoy her voice.

But so well written.

Looking forward to seeing the movie.

Great Story

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The reading of it was a little bland and without emotion, but the story itself was wonderful. Full of insights into what it is like to live with Alzheimer's disease.

A beautiful story

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, although it does start off a little slowly. After a couple chapters, I was hooked and found myself sitting in my idling car just to hear a little more. The only criticism I have is of the reader. It is narrated by the author and while she can write beautifully, she is not an ideal narrator. Her voice is monotone and sometimes it is difficult to depict who is speaking. She needs more inflection and perhaps some varying tones to depict different characters' voices. Her voice is very clear and even, but dull and lifeless. The story was exactly the opposite and I would still recommend this book!

A must read

The story evoked so much emotion but the reading was lackluster. Regardless, I highly recommend the book. I am so glad more awareness is being brought to Alzheimer's disease.

Well done

Intriguing! I found myself administering the Neurological tests to myself. Wondering if I somehow exhibited signs of dementia. It could happen to anyone. The book is well written and the audible is well produced. I totally enjoyed the listen.

Are we today what we remember of yesterday?

Over my reading life, there have been only a handful of books that have required that I seriously examine the role that the brain plays in determining the quality of, perhaps even the meaning of, life. Genova's "Still Alice" has provoked me to reconsider relationships based on memory and/or cerebral interaction. Readers may want to re-read "Flowers for Algernon" (sort of a reveral of "Still Alice.") Also, and here you may question the synapse that lead to this link, juxtapose Vonnegut's assertion in "Galapagos" that the curse of humanity is our big brains against the losses that Alice experiences as her disease progresses. Do the closing scenes portray her quality of life actually enhanced?

Beautifully told

Given the subject matter I thought this story might be predictable and become boring, I stead it captivated me more and more as it went on. Subtle nuisances with the characters are so appreciated and made them human. I will cherish this story going forward.

Great book, so so performance.

I’m delighted that this novel is written by a Neuroscientist. Even though the book is fiction, the science behind the disease diagnosis & treatments is accurate; there is nothing fictitious about it. Lisa Genova also managed to put the readers into the ‘head space’ of Alice, the frustration & fear she felt as her conditions get progressively worse. Alice, a celebrated Harvard Linguistics professor, pride herself on having incredible brain power. To feel her own mental capacity steadily diminishing with each passing day, to watch the reaction & attitude of her family & colleagues whenever she’s in the room gradually eroded her confidence in anything & everything she did. The story is very engaging, however, the way Lisa reads her own book is not. Usually I love books read by the author, but in this case I think the book could have benefited from a less monotoned narrator.

One of my favorite parts of the book was shortly after Alice received her diagnosis, when her condition was not quite perceptible to others yet, Alice wished that

“… she had cancer instead. She'd trade Alzheimer's for cancer in a heartbeat. She felt ashamed for wishing this and it was certainly a pointless bargaining, but she permitted the fantasy anyway. With cancer, she'd have something that she could fight. There was surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. There was the chance that she could win. Her family and the community at Harvard would rally behind her battle and consider it noble. And even if defeated in the end, she'd be able to look them knowingly in the eye and say good-bye before she left.

Alzheimer's disease was an entirely different kind of beast. There were no weapons that could slay it. Taking Aricept and Namenda felt like aiming a couple of leaky squirt guns in to the face of a blazing fire. John continued to probe into the drugs in clinical development, but she doubted that any of them were ready and capable of making a significant difference for her, else he would already have been on the phone with Dr. Davis, insisting on a way to get her on them. Right now, everyone with Alzheimer's faced the same outcome, whether they were eighty-two or fifty, resident of the Mount Auburn Manor or a full professor of psychology at Harvard University. The blazing fire consumed all. No one got out alive.

And while a bald head and a looped ribbon were seen as badges of courage and hope, her reluctant vocabulary and vanishing memories advertised mental instability and impending insanity. Those with cancer could expect to be supported by their community. Alice expected to be outcast. Even the well-intentioned and educated tended to keep a fearful distance from the mentally ill. She didn't want to become someone people avoided and feared.”


This is an incredibly thought-provoking and absorbing book. It hits frighteningly close to home, I saw many similarities reflected in the book as I watch my grandmother steadily fade away from us over the last few years due to Alzheimer’s disease, and my mother who juggles many things to care for her.

Still Alice

excellent book. my mother lived with me when she was first diagnosed w/alzheimers. i wish i had this book when she was living with me. reading this book answered unanswered questions i had. i highly recommend this book to anyone who is dealing w/a loved one who is suffering w/this awful disease. it helps us understand where they are coming from and what's going on in their minds.