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.