Originally written in November 2024, this post gathers early notes, background, and reviews related to Lisa Genova’s work. It now sits alongside a later reflection in the Writers Who Shaped How I Think series (January 2025).
Lisa Genova is an American author best known for writing contemporary fiction centered on people living with neurological and psychological conditions. Long before her work became a consistent point of reference for me as a reader and writer, her novels stood out for their unusual balance of scientific precision and emotional restraint.
Genova made her fiction debut in 2007 with Still Alice, a novel that went on to become an award-winning title and a New York Times bestseller. The book helped bring Alzheimer’s disease into public conversation not as an abstract diagnosis, but as a lived, interior experience—setting the foundation for the work that followed.
Her academic background informs that approach. Genova graduated as valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and later earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University. That training gives her novels a level of accuracy that is rare in contemporary fiction, but it never overwhelms the human story. The science remains present but quiet, in service of character rather than exposition.
Across her body of work, Genova has written about conditions that are often misunderstood, feared, or ignored. Her novels explore Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, Huntington’s disease, autism, traumatic brain injury, and bipolar disorder, among others. Rather than treating these diagnoses as plot devices, she uses fiction to demystify them—inviting readers to see the person first, not the illness.
Over time, several of Genova’s books have been reviewed on this site, including Every Note Played. Reading her work in sequence reveals a consistent intention: to write with accuracy, empathy, and respect for the dignity of people whose lives are shaped by neurological change.
It has also been meaningful to see engagement from authors whose work appears here. On occasion, Genova—along with writers such as Harold Bloom and Tara Westover—has acknowledged posts connected to this site. These moments are small, but they serve as reminders that writing circulates beyond its original moment and sometimes returns in unexpected ways.
This post remains as a record of early encounters, reviews, and context surrounding Genova’s work—now complemented by a more reflective examination of her influence within the Writers Who Shaped How I Think series.
