Love Anthony (39 page)

How was the experience of writing
Love Anthony
different from that withyour two previous novels,
Still Alice
and
Left Neglected?

When I was writing
Still Alice
and
Left Neglected
, I always felt like I could lean on my neuroscience background when I needed it. I could go to the textbooks and the medical community for scientific information about Alzheimer’s or Neglect and traumatic brain injury, and, as a fledgling writer, I found this comforting. With
Love Anthony
, I was very much aware that I was writing without this safety net. There is no neuroscience textbook on autism. And the structure of this story is far more complex than my previous two books. With
Still Alice
and
Left Neglected
, I was a neuroscientist writing a novel. With
Love Anthony
, I became a novelist.

Can you read other writers while you are working on a book, or do you take a sort of “media-blackout” approach?

I’m always reading, typically two or three books at once. While writing
Love Anthony
, I was always reading a book about autism—
The Siege
,
Born on Blue Day
,
Making Peace with Autism
,
A Regular Guy
,
The Way I See It
,
Son-Rise, Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism
. But I was also usually reading a novel or a memoir unrelated to autism. Right now I’m reading
Mapping Fate
,
One Hundred Years of Solitude
, and
Maine
.

With
Still Alice
, you raised awareness to the insidious disease of Alzheimer’s, and in
Left Neglected
, you shed light on traumatic brain injuries. Is it your hope that
Love Anthony
can do the same for autism?

Absolutely. Scientifically and clinically speaking, we’re only beginning to understand what autism is. Most physicians were taught essentially nothing about it when they were in medical school. So in 2012, we’re in the infancy of elucidating the neuroscience of autism. Yet 1 in 88 children are on the spectrum. And each one of those children has a mother, a father, grandparents, siblings, cousins, neighbors, teachers, student peers, friends—people who are touched by autism,
connected
to it, and need some better understanding of what it is. I hope that
Love Anthony
can contribute to an increased awareness and a much-needed, better understanding of autism.

What are you working on next?

My next novel is about a genetic, neurodegenerative disease and fate.

LISA GENOVA holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. With more than one million copies of her critically acclaimed
New York Times
bestselling novels
Still Alice
and
Left Neglected
in print, she has captured a special place in contemporary fiction, writing stories that are equally inspired by neuroscience and the human spirit. She lives with her family on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Visit her online at
lisagenova.com
.

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COPYRIGHT © 2012 SIMON & SCHUSTER

ALSO BY LISA GENOVA

Still Alice
Left Neglected

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Gallery Books

A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Lisa Genova

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Gallery Books hardcover edition September 2012

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Genova, Lisa.

Love Anthony : a novel / Lisa Genova.—1st Gallery Books hardcover ed.

    p. cm.

“Gallery original fiction hard.”

1. Mothers of autistic children—Fiction. 2. Autistic children—Fiction. 3. Mothers and sons—Fiction. 4. Women authors—Fiction. 5. Female friendship—Fiction. 6. Meaning (Psychology)—Fiction. 7. Nantucket Island (Mass.)—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3607.E55L68 2013

813’.6—dc22

2012022304

ISBN 978-1-4391-6468-6

ISBN 978-1-4391-6470-9 (ebook)