Inside the O'Briens /

Originally published: New York: Gallery Books.

Joe O'Brien is a 44-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighbourhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four adult children, and respected officer, when he begins experiencing bouts of disorganised thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements, he initially attributes them to stress. Finally, he sees a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family's lives forever: Huntington's disease, a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure, which each of his children has a 50% chance of inheriting. While watching her potential future in her father's escalating symptoms, his 21-year-old daughter wrestles with the questions this test imposes on her young life.