Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes

“Fascinating, agonizing…Superb.” – Birmingham News

Charlie Gordon, born with a low IQ of 68, has been offered the opportunity to increase his mental capacity. He will be the first human guinea pig for an experimentally surgery that the researchers hope will increase his intelligence. The doctors are optimistic as Algernon, the white mouse they experimented on, has become extremely smart.

As the effects of the procedure begins to show, Charlie's intelligence expands at a phenomenal rate surpassing even the predictions of his doctors. His old memories return with clarity and Charlie begins to understand that being smart and remembering comes with cruel shocks. He begins to remember his childhood rejection by both his family and schoolmates. At the bakery where he worked, Charlie soon learns that the people he had always called friends had always been making fun of him. His sudden intelligence makes those who previously knew him uncomfortable, and Charlie comes to the realization that he no longer fits in his old world.

While Charlie is still trying to find his place, Algernon begins to deteriorate. Now Charlie must use all of his superior intelligence to find out if the same thing will happen to him.

Told through heartrending “progris riports” that Charlie is asked to write for the researchers, this intense Hugo, Nebula and Oscar winning classic gives voice to the vast emotional journey of Charlie experiences.