Love Anthony

Love Anthony, a 2012 novel by Lisa Genova, tells the story of two women living on Nantucket island, each of whom is dealing with life-shattering events. Genova, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience, weaves real-world knowledge of the brain and how it works into the story to offer the reader a sense of what it might be like to be autistic while also highlighting the isolating, exhausting life of a parent raising an autistic child. Her use of a narrative technique that seems almost magical allows her to give a severely autistic character unable to communicate verbally a voice and presence in the story he would otherwise lack.

The story begins with a brief prologue. Beth, a mother of three daughters, is enjoying a warm day in October on the beach in Nantucket. As she watches her girls build a sand castle, she notices a small boy of about three playing near his mother, placing rocks on top of each other. When the tide comes in he dances and squeals in delight. Beth suggests that her daughter invite the boy to help with their castle, but the boy ignores her. When they leave, Beth picks up a stone similar to the ones the boy was using and adds it to his pile, and the boy dances and squeals for her.

In the present, Beth receives a letter in the mail that informs her that her husband, Jimmy, is having an affair. She marches up to their bedroom to confront him.



The perspective switches to Olivia, who has moved to Nantucket recently. She was once a book editor and is now divorced. Her ex-husband sends her an envelope with three round, white stones in it, mementos of their son, Anthony. Anthony had been autistic; he loved things that came in threes and loved to line rocks like these up. He never spoke, and after being diagnosed at age three, he never made eye contact or communicated in any way. They had struggled to care for Anthony, but he died unexpectedly at age eight. Although Olivia and her husband still love each other, the grief destroyed their marriage; Olivia has come to the summer house they bought when Anthony was a baby to be alone.

The action switches to Beth as she kicks her husband out of the house. Olivia goes to the beach and reminisces about her son, reflecting on the difficulty of raising him without ever being able to communicate meaningfully with him. Beth attends her book club and is dismayed when her friends wish to discuss her marital problems rather than the book. Both women are inspired to find ways to deal with the rubble of their lives. Olivia continues to read manuscripts for her former boss at the publishing firm, but a memory of taking a photo of Anthony with his eyes open and looking directly at her inspires her to take up her old hobby of photography, launching a business to make the extra money she needs. Beth once aspired to be a writer, and she begins going to the library to work on a manuscript inspired by the memory of the little boy on the beach, piling up rocks with such delight. Beth writes the book from the boy’s point-of-view, imagining him as an autistic child who cannot communicate normally, who addresses his mother directly in the novel.

Olivia is informed that her ex-husband is engaged to another woman; she is happy for him as she ponders the meaning of happiness. Beth, deciding to have a family portrait taken with her daughters, hires Olivia to take the photos. The women instantly like each other and bond. When Beth tells Olivia that she is working on a novel, Olivia offers to read it and offer her a professional perspective as a former editor. Beth eagerly agrees. Olivia is stunned to read a story written from the perspective of an autistic boy named Anthony who matches her deceased son in every way—from his love of threes and white, round rocks to his love of Barney the purple elephant. The story switches to a book-within-a-book as the fictional Anthony Beth has created speaks to Olivia (and the reader) through a first-person narrative that attempts to communicate what it was like to be Anthony.



Although it is impossible, Olivia can’t help but believe that somehow this is Anthony speaking to her through Beth, saying all the things he was incapable of saying while alive. This comforts her, and she is able to accept Anthony’s death and move forward. Beth decides to make an attempt to fix her marriage.

Olivia decides to leave Nantucket and return to her career as a book editor. She takes Beth’s manuscript with her, intending to make it her first project.

In an epilogue to both the book-within-a-book and the novel, Anthony comforts Olivia by telling her that he felt no deprivation in his life, that autism was “the vehicle of my being.” He tells her that he existed to teach her about love, that the fact that she loved him despite his autism meant she loved him unconditionally, and that this experience will allow her to love someone else in the same way someday.



Genova uses her training and expertise to offer a possible perspective from an autistic boy’s point-of-view, something that is impossible to know for certain. The book-within-a-book technique allows her to introduce a supernatural aspect—a dead child communicating with his mother—without making the novel a ghost story. The story ultimately is about love and relationships and how they are often conditional upon certain expectations, behaviors, and superficial actions—and how loving someone in spite of a lack of these attributes is the purest form of the emotion.