(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. A Harvard professor, she has a successful husband and three grown children. When she begins to grow forgetful, she dismisses it for as long as she can, but when she gets lost in her own neighbourhood she knows that something has gone terribly wrong. She finds herself in the rapidly downward spiral of Alzheimer's Disease. She is fifty years old.
Suddenly she has no classes to teach, no new research to conduct, no invited lectures to give. Ever again. Unable to work, read and, increasingly, take care of herself, Alice struggles to find meaning and purpose in her everyday life as her concept of self gradually slips away. But Alice is a remarkable woman, and her family, yoked by history and DNA and love, discover more about her and about each other, in their quest to keep the Alice they know for as long as possible.
Losing her yesterdays, her short-term memory hanging on by a couple of frayed threads, she is living in the moment, living for each day. But she is still Alice.

This turned out to be a far different book than I had expected. I am not sure how that came to be - I think maybe that the story was told from the first person (Alice's POV) that contributed to such a reaction.

And what a POV it is - a woman who is a Harvard professor, has a family and only fifty years of age, suddenly faces life with Alzheimer's Disease. The step-by-step, day-by-day disintegration of her memory and lifestyle is heartbreaking - without being too overwrought or dramatic. I think the author must have done so much research to get the fine balance between telling a story and "playing doctor" - filling us with long, boring, technical details that would have taken from the flow of the novel. And I thank her for that.

Don't read this book thinking it is another "insta-heal cancer" novels, nor does it trivialise the lives of others around them. It doesn't take anything for granted nor does it pile on the tear-jerker passages as a lot of these kinds of books do.

It certainly deserved all the praise it received - it is a very good book!


Paul
ARH