'These pages will be a blessing to families dealing with Alzheimer's. Jauhar's prose is insightful, honest and moving about a condition that most of us will inevitably encounter in our lifetimes.'
My Father’s Brain
Understanding Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s
Sandeep JauharA son’s journey through his father’s dementia.
As a cardiologist, Sandeep Jauhar is trained to think logically and dispassionately about medical problems, and primed to offer his patients reassurance and solutions. But when his father is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s there are no magic treatments or miracle drugs – only the promise of unstoppable decline.
For years Jauhar watches his father undergo a distressing transformation. Once a prominent research geneticist and author, he now repeats questions over and over, forgets what he has eaten for breakfast, makes baffling financial decisions and turns into a liability behind the wheel.
Jauhar investigates the science of dementia and what actually happens in the brain as we age and our memory falters, uncovering the history of Alzheimer’s from first discovery to the most cutting-edge research, and whether modern treatments offer any hope in a global crisis. A blend of science, history and memoir, My Father’s Brain is a brutally honest and moving account of how Jauhar and his siblings grappled every day with some of life’s toughest questions.
Reviews
Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
’Gripping… [Jauhar’s] honesty makes this a book that will give others what we sometimes need most – the knowledge that we are not alone.’
Dr Lucy Pollock, author of The Book About Getting Older
'My Father's Brain is at once a deeply affecting memoir and a profoundly instructive primer about a malady that now affects many millions of people.'
Amitav Ghosh, author of The Nutmeg's Curse and Flood of Fire
'[My Father's Brain] excels in its clear scientific explanations of what happens in the brain as dementia progresses and in its authentic descriptions of the sheer hell of it for all concerned… deeply moving, especially when Jauhur describes his own sense of confusion about how to do the right thing as his father declines.’
Financial Times
'Painful yet affecting... difficult to put down.'
Kirkus
'With Heart: A History and other books, Sandeep Jauhar established himself as one of our most insightful, readable, and humane physician-authors. With My Father’s Brain, his work becomes still more essential. Blending the humor, compassion, and absorbing family drama of first-rate memoir with expert science writing, he has composed a can’t-miss introduction to what has been called The Age of Alzheimer’s.'
Sanjay Gupta, author of Keep Sharp and World War C
’Engaging, well written, and gives a very personal touch from a MD confronted with the disease… I recommend it to a wide public.’
Prof Bart de Strooper, Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute
'Propulsive... Every family who’s ever faced an Alzheimer’s diagnosis will see themselves in this exceptional work.'
Publishers Weekly
