NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A powerfully engaging, scrupulously researched, and deeply empathetic
narrative of the history of Alzheimer's disease, how it affects us, and
the search for a cure.
Afflicting nearly half of all people over the age of 85, Alzheimer's
disease kills nearly 100,000 Americans a year as it insidiously robs
them of their memory and wreaks havoc on the lives of their loved ones.
It was once minimized and misunderstood as forgetfulness in the elderly,
but Alzheimer's is now at the forefront of many medical and scientific
agendas, for as the world's population ages, the disease will touch the
lives of virtually everyone. David Shenk movingly captures the disease's
impact on its victims and their families, and he looks back through
history, explaining how Alzheimer's most likely afflicted such figures
as Jonathan Swift, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Willem de Kooning. The
result is a searing and graceful account of Alzheimer's disease,
offering a sobering, compassionate, and ultimately encouraging portrait.