Valley of Forgetting

Alzheimer's Families and the Search for a Cure

Jennie Erin Smith

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Hardback

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English

Riverhead Books,U.S.
29 April 2025

Health economics; Press & journalism; Genetics (non-medical)

The riveting account of a community from the remote mountains of Colombia whose rare and fatal genetic mutation is unlocking the secrets of Alzheimer's disease

""Powerful. . . . a poignant depiction of a community in crisis."" -Publishers Weekly

""Valley of Forgetting reminds us that scientific progress is measured not only in breakthroughs but also through the sacrifices people make, the trust that is built. It is a tender story of the unshakable will to make meaning in the face of inexorable loss. . . . Smith elegantly captures what it means to love, to belong, to hold on to one another when so much is uncertain."" -Washington Post

The riveting account of a community from the remote mountains of Colombia whose rare and fatal genetic mutation is unlocking the secrets of Alzheimer's disease

In the 1980s, a neurologist named Francisco Lopera traveled on horseback into the mountains seeking families with symptoms of dementia. For centuries, residents of certain villages near Medellin had suffered memory loss as they reached middle age, going on to die in their fifties. Lopera discovered that a unique genetic mutation was causing their rare hereditary form of early onset Alzheimer's disease. Over the next forty years of working with the ""paisa mutation"" kindred, he went on to build a world-class research program in a region beset by violence and poverty.

In Valley of Forgetting, Jennie Erin Smith brings readers into the clinic, the laboratories, and the Medellin trial center where Lopera's patients receive an experimental drug to see if Alzheimer's can be averted. She chronicles the lives of people who care for sick parents, spouses, and siblings, all while struggling to keep their own dreams afloat. These Colombian families have donated hundreds of their loved ones' brains to science and subjected themselves to invasive testing to help uncover how Alzheimer's develops and whether it can be stopped. Findings from this unprecedented effort could hold the key to understanding and treating the disease, though it is unclear what, if anything, the families will receive in return.

Smith's immersive storytelling brings this complex drama to life, inviting readers on a scientific journey that is as deeply moving as it is engrossing.

By: Jennie Erin Smith
Imprint: Riverhead Books,U.S.
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 161mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 564g
ISBN: 9780525536079
ISBN 10: 0525536078
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 29 April 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jennie Erin Smith is the author of Stolen World. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times and has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Times Literary Supplement, The New Yorker, and others. She is a recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award; the Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida; and two first-place awards from the Society for Features Journalism. She lives in Florida and Colombia.

Reviews for Valley of Forgetting: Alzheimer's Families and the Search for a Cure

“Jennie Erin Smith writes with such narrative skill, such empathy and curiosity, such a strong sense of the place where science and people meet, that you come out with the feeling of having witnessed an extraordinary investigation into the mysteries of what makes us human.” —Juan Gabriel Vásquez, author of The Sound of Things Falling “Valley of Forgetting is the masterfully told story of how, over the past four decades, a human drama of extraordinary significance has quietly unfolded in a rural province of Colombia. Jennie Erin Smith deserves a wide readership for this book that is at once revealing, unsettling, timely, and ultimately, deeply moving.” —Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life and To Lose a War “Jennie Erin Smith’s story of scientific detective work under impossible circumstances, and the people who offer up their trust and their brains, is harrowing, but also more exhilarating than you’d imagine a book about dementia could possibly be.” —Larissa MacFarquhar, author of Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help “Solid medical reportage with a hopeful conclusion that science may soon bring a cure for a devastating disease.” —Kirkus Reviews