The story’s protagonist. At 50 years old, Alice has achieved tenure at Harvard University, made huge contributions to the field of psycholinguistics, traveled all over the world, and is looking forward to taking another sabbatical…
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Dr. John Howland
Alice’s husband and father of Anna, Tom, and Lydia. Like Alice, John is also a tenured professor at Harvard, but he studies biology and spends many more hours working in a…
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Lydia Howland
Alice and John’s youngest child. Unlike her siblings Anna and Tom, Lydia does not immediately go to college after high school, instead opting for a gap year in Europe before moving to LA…
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Anna Howland
Alice and John’s oldest child; Lydia and Tom’s sister. Anna is a successful lawyer, has recently married a man named Charlie, and is actively trying to conceive their first child. Anna struggles…
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Tom Howland
Alice and John’s second child and only son; Lydia and Anna’s brother. Tom is a third-year student at Harvard Medical School and is specifically studying cardiothoracic surgery. Tom and John are very close…
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"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
A linguistics doctoral student who Alice is advising as he finishes his dissertation research. Alice and Dan are close friends in addition to their student-teacher relationship, and she insists on staying on as his advisor…
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Eric Wellman
Head of the Psychology Department at Harvard University, where Alice works. Eric and Alice are friendly with each another because they have worked together for many years. At the start of the spring semester at…
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Dr. Davis
The neurologist to whom Dr. Tamara Moyer refers Alice. Dr. Davis sends Alice to take some basic cognitive tests and performs a short one in his office before telling her she has Alzheimer’s. Dr…
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Stephanie Aaron
The genetic counsellor at Dr. Davis’s office. Stephanie helps guide Alice and John through the process of having Alice genetically tested to see if her Alzheimer’s has a genetic link. Later, after Stephanie tells…
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Dr. Tamara Moyer
Alice’s primary care physician for the past 22 years. Tamara is the first doctor Alice goes to for advice about her memory problems. Alice believes that her problems are just severe symptoms of menopause…
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Anne Lydia Daly
Alice’s sister who died at 16 years old in a car crash caused by their father Peter’s drunk driving. Alice had been very close to Anne and frequently thinks about what she would…
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Peter Lucas Daly
Alice’s father, who suffered from alcoholism for most of her life. After he crashes the family car while driving drunk, killing Alice’s sister, Anne, and mother, Sarah, Peter spirals deeper and deeper…
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Beth Maloney
Dan Maloney’s wife. Beth marries Dan during the final months of his doctoral research and is brought to Eric Wellman’s holiday party, which takes place shortly before Alice receives her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Dan…
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Marjorie Wellman
Eric Wellman’s wife. Marjorie helps Eric put on an annual holiday party for the entire Harvard Psychology Department. Although Marjorie and Alice are friend with each another, there is some distance between them because…
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Denise Daddario
The social worker assigned to work with dementia patients and their families at Dr. Davis’s office. Denise frequently offers to refer John to a counsellor or therapy group that can help him cope with…
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Mary Johnson
A friend Alice meets through Denise Daddario, the social worker at the neurosurgeon’s office where both Alice and Mary are patients. Mary is 57 and has frontotemporal lobe dementia, so she is able to…
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Cathy Roberts
A friend who Alice meets through Denise Daddario, the social worker at the neurosurgeon’s office where both Alice and Cathy are patients. Cathy is 48 and, like Alice, is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Alice…
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Josh
An old classmate of Alice’s from Harvard. Alice runs into him at the conference at Stanford and he playfully teases her for reusing old conference material. When Alice struggles to remember a word during…
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Leslie
A Harvard graduate student finishing her doctoral thesis under the guidance of Eric Wellman. When Leslie presents her research thesis and plan to the Harvard faculty, Alice makes a good suggestion for how to…
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Allison Anne
Alice’s granddaughter and Anna’s daughter. Allison is the first of Anna’s twins (the other being Charles Thomas) that Alice gets to hold. Alice frequently plays with her in the late stages of…
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Minor Characters
Charlie
Anna’s husband. Like Anna, Charlie is a successful lawyer and he works at the same large firm as Anna. Alice remembers Charlie even after she begins to lose memories of Lydia, which greatly upsets Alice as her disease worsens.
Sarah Louise Daly
Alice’s mother who died in the same car crash that killed Anne. Sarah was about 40 when she died, and Alice sometimes thinks about how Sarah missed being able to do with her, including meeting her grandchildren and seeing Alice achieve her goal of becoming a Harvard professor.
Dan Sullivan
A friend who Alice meets through Denise Daddario, the social worker at the neurosurgeon’s office where they are both patients. Dan is 53 and is also suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s. Dan attends Alice’s talk at the Dementia Care Conference.
Malcolm
Malcolm is one of Lydia’s roommates in LA. When Lydia talks about him, she momentarily blushes, which indicates to Alice that Lydia might have feelings for him. Later, Alice reads Lydia’s diary and learns Malcolm, like Lydia, is an actor, and they worked together before dating.
Gordon Miller
The head of Stanford’s Psychology Department. Alice and Gordon are on friendly terms, and he is the one who introduces her and goes over her accomplishments to the audience before her presentation at Stanford.
Carole
The caretaker hired to help care for Alice after John leaves for New York. Carole takes Alice on walks, gets her ice cream, and stays with her while Alice’s kids work during the day.
Charles Thomas
Alice’s grandson and Anna’s son. Alice frequently holds Charles and entertains him in the late stages of her Alzheimer’s. Charles is Allison Anne’s twin, and, like Allison, underwent embryonic testing which showed he did not inherit the gene mutation that resulted in Alice’s Alzheimer’s.