First published 2026
Robert Kolker examines a Pennsylvania family carrying a rare genetic mutation that triggers dementia as early as age forty. The disease strikes with particular cruelty, causing personality changes that make loving parents and successful professionals abandon responsibilities, lose jobs, and become unrecognizable to their families. Kolker follows the nine siblings as they watch their mother succumb first, then witness the same transformation in multiple brothers and sisters. Each child faces a fifty percent chance of inheriting the condition. Sue dedicates herself to caregiving while Barb pursues medical research for a cure. Kolker connects their personal story to the broader scientific battle against dementia, showing how this family's rare form of frontotemporal dementia could unlock treatments for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. The author of Hidden Valley Road delivers both an intimate family portrait and a medical investigation that offers hope amid devastating loss.
Genres: biography, medical, non-fiction, family-drama
Vibes: heartbreaking, hopeful, intimate, meditative, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-portrait, medical-investigation, personal-narrative-with-broader-context
Setting: Pennsylvania
544 pages · Paperback · Random House Large Print
Content warnings: death, mental-illness, terminal-illness