Many researchers are trying to find a drug to overcome Alzheimer’s. In this novel by Asa Ericsdotter, the solution is in sight. But at what cost?
Genre aside, the medical and scientific thriller has seen renewed interest since the global pandemic. Asa Ericsdotter, Swedish novelist, steps into the breach by signing Phase 3, a thriller of incredible effectiveness and realism that risks freezing you with fear if you are over 60 years old.
The molecule developed by two teams of American researchers acts directly on brain cells. Like a kind of detergent, which cleans the nerve endings facilitating communication between neurons. Immediate consequence: patients affected by Alzheimer’s disease regain their memory and a perfect perception of their reality. Research which leads to the development of a drug, called Re-cognize. After lengthy theoretical studies, a clinical trial was carried out on laboratory mice. Then sick people, volunteers.
Re-cognize is in phase 3, the last, which should, at the same time, make it possible to obtain marketing authorization. It seems a miracle. Almost too beautiful for Celia, Adam or David, the three main characters of the novel. First alert, when a cured mouse kills the other guinea pigs in its cage. Then mass killings in a retirement home and in a shopping center alerted researchers. Because the killers are elderly people, volunteers to test Re-cognize.
Phase 3 tells how some scientists play with fire. While others are overly cautious. It’s difficult to find a happy medium when you have to fight this horrible evil: “Celia’s grandmother was the strongest, the wisest. Then Alzheimer’s disease began to drain her of all her wisdom. […] She had become someone else. Then she became a nobody. It was a diabolical disease. » By alternating points of view (researcher, patients, guinea pigs), the novelist manages to increase the tension in a plot with multiple twists and turns. A very lucid reflection on medical research, its consequences, its mistakes and the hopes it often arouses.
But this remains only fiction and unfortunately, every day, hundreds of memories and lives disappear from the face of the earth.
“Phase 3”, Asa Ericsdotter, Actes Sud, 480 pages, €24
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