Alzheimer s is the commonest form of dementia, a condition that denotes not only memory loss but degeneration of all motor abilities. It has been estimated that the incidence of Alzheimer s and other dementias among the ageing in India is as high as 47 per cent.

This is the story of Krishna Bhattacharya s fight against Alzheimer s, written by her husband. It is a frank, sensitive and unsentimental account of inadequate medical knowledge; of the importance of care; the ethics of care-giving; and the confusing, heartrending, often frustrating, but also uplifting, experience of living with a loved one who is living with Alzheimer s.

In this moving account Ranabir Samaddar turns his attention to one of the most critical issues of human life today. He writes with the insight of a sociologist and the compassion of one for whom quality of life depends as much or more on human interaction and empathy as it does on palliative therapy.