Lisa Genova's new novel, although fiction, brings a story to life about a boy with autism and makes it feel real.

Gallery Books published "Love Anthony" on Sept. 25. The 309-page book is described:

I'm always hearing about how my brain doesn't work right. . . . But it doesn't feel broken to me.

Olivia Donatelli's dream of a "normal" life shattered when her son, Anthony, was diagnosed with autism at age three. Understanding the world from his perspective felt bewildering, nearly impossible. He didn't speak. He hated to be touched. He almost never made eye contact. And just as Olivia was starting to realize that happiness and autism could coexist, Anthony died.

Now she's alone in a cottage on Nantucket, separated from her husband, desperate to understand the meaning of her son's short life, when a chance encounter with another woman facing her own loss brings Anthony alive again for Olivia in a most unexpected way.

Beth Ellis's entire life changed with a simple note: "I'm sleeping with Jimmy." Fourteen years of marriage. Three beautiful daughters. Yet even before her husband's affair, she had never felt so alone. Heartbroken, she finds the pieces of the vivacious, creative person she used to be packed away in a box in her attic. For the first time in years, she uncaps her pen, takes a deep breath, and begins to write. The young but exuberant voice that emerges onto the page is a balm to the turmoil within her, a new beginning, and an astonishing bridge back to herself. 

In a piercing story about motherhood, autism, and love, New York Times bestselling author Lisa Genova offers us two unforgettable women on the verge of change and the irrepressible young boy whose unique wisdom helps them both find the courage to move on.

In a recent interview, Genova focuses on themes than examine the diseases and disorders that affect the brain because she is a Harvard-trained neuroscientist.

"I'm really lucky, I think," Genova said of her former vocation, according to the Canadian Press. "All my books are extensively researched. And it's great to be able to have the credibility to talk to anybody you want to."

"Still Alice," her first book, focused on a woman dealing with Alzheimers. Her grandmother inspired the character. In "Left Neglected," the story focused on a woman who had a traumatic brain injury that resulted in no feeling on her left side.

Genova revealed that her cousin's child, a 12-year-old with autism named Anthony, was the inspiration for the novel. She also got divorced and is now a single mom.

So I do have a really strong personal connection to this story," Genova said.

When asked if she would continue writing books of the same theme, which is conditions dealing with the brain, she said, "As a neuroscientist who has become a novelist, that's kind of the unique thing I bring to fiction, so I like writing about neuroscience.

"I have no plans to abandon that, but at the same time ... this one is much less in the neuroscience genre than the other two," she said of "Love Anthony." "I really feel like in my first two books I was a neuroscientist writing a novel. But in this book, I really think I became a novelist."

Genova's next novel will focus on someone with Huntington's disease.

"Love Anthony" has gotten rave reviews:

"Lisa Genova's novels ring true. Love Anthony, like Genova's two previous novels, is beautifully written, and poignant to the point of heartbreak...Anyone who has had even a passing contact with an autistic child will relate...Try not to weep." - USA Today

"There's a point in the narrative where one of the characters becomes so engrossed in reading a book that she loses track of time. Readers of Genova's latest excellent offering might very well find the same happening to them." - Kirkus

"Autism is like a Zen koan--a riddle without answers.., with effects that are myriad, mysterious, and confounding. The same could be said about love. This book upended my perceptions of both conditions, leaving me feeling with my mind and thinking with my heart. Everyone should read this book!" - New York Times

Want to read "Love Anthony?" You can buy the novel on Amazon for $16.