Left Neglected [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Lisa Genova (Author), Sarah Paulson (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2011

The New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice delivers a compelling and poignant story about a vibrant woman in the prime of her life struck with the crippling disorder of “left neglect.”

Neuroscientist and multiple award–winning author, Lisa Genova has been honored repeatedly for her writing excellence. Her first novel, Still Alice, a haunting and moving portrait of Alzheimer’s patient, was a commercial and critical success, debuting at #5 on the New York Times list and staying there for more than thirty weeks. Now she brings attention to a lesser-known condition, building upon the same kind of humanity that made Still Alice so special.

Thirty-something Sarah Nickerson is like so many women today—driven to succeed at home and at work, multi-tasking all day long, spread extremely thin. The morning that changes her life forever is at first just a typical morning. She’s in her car on her way to work, about to make a business call. But she takes her eyes off the road for one second too long, and she finds herself involved in a terrible accident. Sarah suffers a traumatic brain injury. Her memory and intellect are still intact, but she loses the ability to perceive information coming from the left—as if the left side of everything no longer exists—a condition known as left neglect. In just the blink of an eye, her life has changed. But as she works to recover, she reorders her priorities, and heals a rift with her mother, as well.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In neuroscientist Genova's second novel (after Still Alice), a car crash gives a successful younger woman an obscure neurological syndrome called Left Neglect. Upwardly mobile Sarah and Bob Nickerson live in suburban Massachusetts with their three small children. Both work 60-hour weeks, though the economic downturn looms. When Sarah wakes up eight days after crashing her car on the way to work, the doctors inform her of her condition, which causes her brain to ignore the left side of everything, and she begins a long and uncertain recovery. Genova vividly describes Sarah's fear and frustration about a recovery that may never come, turning her struggle into a lesson in forgiveness, acceptance, and adaptability; insights reveal themselves with extreme clarity, and small moments between Bob and Sarah illustrate his stalwart love, though readers may want a more thorough investigation of his growing role as caretaker, and as a character. More accessible than her somber first book, which dealt with early-onset Alzheimer's, the central condition causes readers to wonder what brain disease she will think of next. (Jan.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

First-person narrator Sarah Nickerson is a 37-year-old, overachieving multitasker with a Harvard MBA and a demanding job as vice president of human relations at a Boston consulting firm. Her husband, Bob, works at a struggling tech start-up and shares in the upbringing of their three young children in an affluent suburb. Then there’s a car accident on a rainy November morning, and a traumatic brain injury leaves Sarah with “left neglect,” a lack of awareness of anything to her left, including the left side of her own body. The one person who can help when insurance runs out is Sarah’s mother, Helen, yet their relationship has been rocky ever since Helen was a virtually absentee mother for Sarah after Sarah’s brother, Nate, died in childhood. As Sarah’s struggles parallel those of her 7-year-old son, Charlie, just diagnosed with ADHD, there is healing of body, mind, and mother-daughter relationship and acceptance that “normal is overrated.” Neuroscientist Genova (Still Alice, 2009) once again personalizes an actual disabling brain condition to create irresistibly readable and moving fiction. --Michele Leber --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD: 8 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio; Unabridged edition (January 4, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1442335394
• ISBN-13: 978-1442335394
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (151 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa Genova graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. She is the author of the New York Times Bestselling novels STILL ALICE and LEFT NEGLECTED.

STILL ALICE debuted at #5 on the New York Times Bestseller list and has spent 36 weeks on that list. It won the 2008 Bronte Prize and the 2011 Bexley Book of the Year, and it was nominated for the 2010 Indies Choice Debut Book of the Year by the American Booksellers Association. It was the #6 Top Book Group Favorite of 2009 by Reading Group Choices, a 2009 Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, a 2009 Indie Next pick, a 2009 Borders Book Club Pick, and a 2009 Target Book Club pick. There are over a million copies in print, and it has been translated into 25 languages.

LEFT NEGLECTED spent 7 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in hardcover. It was the #1 Indie Next Pick for January 2011, the Borders "Book You'll Love" for January 2011, and is the #4 Indie Reading Group Pick for summer 2011. It will be released in trade paperback on July 26, 2011.

Lisa is currently writing her third novel, LOVE ANTHONY, about a boy with autism. She lives with her family on Cape Cod.

Find out more at www.LisaGenova.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

114 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Changer, January 4, 2011

By 

Joan C. Goodrow "Joanie G" (West Chatham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Left Neglected (Hardcover)

Beautifully written, Genova takes us into the hurried and harried lives of a young family who seem to have it all or do they? Running in all directions,jobs, daycare, after school activites,you know the drill. Traveling in her car Sarah looks away from the road for one split second, shes doing the one thing that so many of us have become guilty of in this high tech over connected world we live in,texting while driving. In that split second of inattention Sarah's world change's forever.
The aftermath of the accident leaves Sarah with a traumatic brain injury know as left brain neglect. For the individual who suffers this devestating brain insult it is beyond all comprehension, because to Sarah the left side of her body ceases to exsist.
I found this book to be truly fascinating as Ms. Genova has the uncanny ability to get inside Sarah's head and describes this injury from her point of view, so that you truly understand what she is feeling. It's an amazing gift and I believe made this book a most rewarding read.
It is also a true cautionary story, one blink of an eye life can change forever and things can never be the same, we all get this, but this book reminds us quite vividly just how devestating the consquences can be.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gift card worthy, January 4, 2011

By 

Luanne Ollivier - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Left Neglected (Hardcover)

Are you looking for a book worthy of spending your Christmas gift card on? I've got one for you.

Lisa Genova had a New York Times bestseller with her first novel Still Alice. I know she's got another bestseller on her hands with her latest book Left Neglected - releasing Jan 4/11.

Sarah Nickerson has it all and can do it all. Can't she? High powered job - minimum of 80 hours a week, gorgeous house in a sought after neighbourhood, vacation home in Vermont, 3 children and a devoted husband. The one thing she doesn't seem to have though, is enough time.

She can't make it to every soccer game and is sure that the other parents think that "Mothers who miss the games, like me, are bad mothers." "I love my children and know they're important, but so is my career and the life that career affords us." And her love life...well..."It's our typical morning good-bye kiss. A quick peck. A well-intentioned habit....It's a routine kiss, but I'm glad we do it. It does mean something. It's enough. And it's all we have time for."

You get the picture. It is while trying to multitask - driving while talking on the cell phone - that Sarah's world is turned upside down. She gets into a horrific crash - one that leaves her with a traumatic brain injury. She is unaware of the left side of anything, including herself. And yes, the condition is real.

Unable to work, dependent on others and forced to accept that her life will never be quite the same, Sarah must reexamine her life, her priorities and her relationships - the things in her life that have been 'left neglected.' I found the rekindling of the relationship with her mother especially poignant.

Although the subject matter is serious, Genova handles it with candor and humour. Sarah's voice is so appealing and honest. Genova has a degree in Biopsychology and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard - her descriptions of a patient coping with brain injury are both accurate and informative.

But Left Neglected is simply a really, really good read. Genova's prose flow so easily, the story is addictive and I became invested in Sarah's journey. And maybe take some time to reevaluate your own priorities.

"What else is there? Maybe success can be something else, and maybe there's another way to get there."

Eminently gift card worthy. I think this is going to be one of 2011's best sellers too. Five stars for me.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this Book!, January 5, 2011

By 

Loves to Read (Wheaton, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Left Neglected (Hardcover)

I just finished reading Left Neglected (which was wonderfully on my new Kindle yesterday morning!) and really, really liked it. The left neglect condition is fascinating to me even though I luckily cannot quite fathom it. The story was engrossing even beyond the traumatic brain injury, with the description of Sarah's life pre and post accident. I got stressed just reading about her life! I think that this would be a fascinating book club book, particularly if there is a mix of career and stay at home moms.