News of the many award nominations for Julianne Moore’s performance as a victim of early onset Alzheimer’s disease in Still Alice has brought attention to the movie even though it won’t open in most cities until February (it had a limited Oscar-qualifying run in early Dec., will open in  NYC and L.A. on Jan 16, before expanding to more theaters).

The book it is based on, Still Alice by Lisa Genova (S&S/Gallery, 2009), is also rising on Amazon sales rankings (now at #26 and rising) and shows growing holds in libraries.

One of the film’s producers, Maria Shriver, featured the author in a segment on the Today Show (a slightly different version was featured on last night’s NBC Nightly News).

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Genova tells the Boston Globe that the success of both the book and the movie are “humbling” surprises. Unable to get an agent for the book, she self-published it. Her guerrilla marketing was so successful that she then landed an agent and a mainstream publisher, Simon & Schuster. For the movie rights, she went with a “very small new production company in London,” because she felt, “they really understood the intent of the story.”

Genova, a neuroscientist, has published two novels since, both dealing with brain disorders. Left Neglected is about the results of a brain injury and Love Anthony, on autism. In her next novel, Inside the O’Briens, (S&S/Gallery” S&S Audio, 4/7/14), she writes about a family dealing with Huntington’s Disease.

Tie-ins:

Still Alice, Lisa Genova
S&S.Gallery: December 16, 2014
Trade Paperback

Mass Market, S&S/Pocket Books

Audio CD, &S Audio

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