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Barcode31111002517157
Circ StatusAvailable
LibraryAmbridge
TitleThe vanishing family : love, fate, and the quest to end dementia / Robert Kolker.
AuthorKolker, Robert, author. https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PCjt9tQkW8WBJcGkqkxgrmd.
Call No616.83 Kolker
CollectionNon-Fiction
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Call NoDownloadURLHTMLCirc StatusLibraryCollectionShelf LocationPeriodical IssueVolumeBarcodePub Year
616.83 Kolker AvailableAmbridgeNon-Fiction   311110025171572026
Catalog Details
International Standard Book Number 9780385551038
International Standard Book Number 0385551037
Dewey Decimal Classification Number 616.8/31/00922
Personal Name Kolker, Robert, author.
Title Statement The vanishing family : love, fate, and the quest to end dementia / Robert Kolker.
Edition Statement First Doubleday hardcover edition.
Imprint New York : Doubleday, 2026.
Physical Description xviii, 345 pages ; 24 cm.
General Note From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road comes the heart-wrenching journey of a family facing a tragic genetic destiny, set against the scientific search for hope for all of us who fear losing our selves to dementia.
Bibliography, Etc. Note Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-325) and index.
Summary, Etc. In the idyllic American town of Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, there lived a family with nine siblings, the youngest a girl named Barb. As the older children headed off to college and started their lives, only Barb was home to see their beautiful, still-young mother fall under a gothic spell, changing into someone she didn't recognize: withdrawn, neglectful, uncaring. Thus begins The Vanishing Family, journalist Robert Kolker's heartbreaking follow-up to his beloved Hidden Valley Road. This family, we learn, has a genetic mutation that causes dementia, but with an especially cruel twist. As early as their forties, formerly loving parents and hard-driving executives will lose their jobs, have affairs, take up drinking--shed all inhibitions and sense of responsibility--and become people their families hardly know. Their former personalities seem to vanish--and there is a fifty-fifty chance that it will happen to their children, too. The Vanishing Family unfolds with dramatic intensity as the siblings begin to realize that what happened to their mother is happening to them: first one, then two, three, four, and more begin to change. Sue, in search of a calling, finds her place in caring for the others. Barb sets out to find a cure. Alongside their story, Kolker weaves in the dramatic scientific fight against dementia; after decades of blind alleys, this family's rare form of FTD (frontotemporal dementia) might lead to a breakthrough in the prevention and treatment of all dementia--including the scourge of Alzheimer's disease. Moving, intimate, unexpectedly hopeful, The Vanishing Family is an enthralling narrative about one family's fate, and a medical detective story that speaks to all of us who fear losing ourselves at the end.
Summary, Etc. None of us knows how our story will end, or what shape we will be in by the time the end comes. Here, however, is the story of a family filled with people who do know - or could know. Each family member has a 50-50 chance of inheriting a genetic mutation that causes frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a cruel disease that emerges in middle age. As more and more family members begin to show symptoms, The Vanishing Family offers an intimate exploration of the family's emotional journeys and relationships, and the difficult decisions they face as they confront their genetic fate. Through first-rate reporting and compassionate storytelling, Kolker brings to life the experiences of those in the family who are afflicted by FTD and those who are not. Interwoven with this devastating narrative is the relentless search for a cure--and a glimmer of hope that FTD research could also help us understand more common forms of dementia like Alzheimer's. The decision of whether to get tested for the genetic mutation looms over all members of the family, surfacing a haunting question: if you were going to lose yourself--in a year, or two, or ten--would you even want to know? The Vanishing Family is a powerful allegory for our anxieties about aging and the unknown, offering a roadmap through the unthinkable.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Resilience (Personality trait)
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Dementia (DNLM)D003704.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Dementia.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Genetics & Genomics.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Genetics (DNLM)D005823.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Dementia Patients Care.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Genetics.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term genetics. (CStmoGRI)aat300138822.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Génétique. (CaQQLa)201-0069234.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Medical (incl. Patients)
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term HEALTH & FITNESS / Diseases & Conditions / Alzheimer's & Dementia.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Résilience (Trait de personnalité) (CaQQLa)201-0192099.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Dementia Prevention.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Frontotemporal dementia.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Frontotemporal Dementia (DNLM)D057180.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Déments (CaQQLa)000285110 Soins. (CaQQLa)201-0377499.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Démence. (CaQQLa)201-0007383.
Subject Added Entry - Topical Term Démence frontotemporale. (CaQQLa)000343435.