What Dementia Teaches Us About Love

Reviews

Immensely powerful . . . an incisive and compelling read. Gerrard, a crime novelist and former journalist, visits the "fresh hell" of hospitals across the UK, and interviews sufferers and those whose lives have been indelibly shaped by the diagnosis of a loved one . . . As well as being part-memoir and part-reportage, What Dementia Teaches Us About Love is also a great part philosophical inquiry into the nature of self and what it is to be human. Essential reading about love, life and care An extraordinarily luminous book, at once terribly sad and frightening but also somehow hopeful and energising. Nobody has written on dementia as well as Nicci Gerrard in this new book. Kind, knowing and infinitely useful Gerrard ranges widely and wisely, raising questions about what it is to be human and facing truths too deep for tears This is a tender, lyrical, profound, urgent book . . . Gerrard has penned a treatise on what it is to be human Evocative and powerful, shining a light on a world which is often hidden and misunderstood Gerrard writes beautifully, encyclopaedically and with humanity Nicci Gerrard exudes understanding of the breadth, scale and complexity of the dementias and the challenges they pose for society. Yet she communicates simply, personally and practically as if speaking individually to each of us Nicci Gerrard writes with power, insight, empathy and extraordinary beauty about the world of dementia . . . and demonstrates how we can address the fear, despair and ignorance that has accompanied its spread Immensely powerful . . . shot through with insights. Gerrard's book is an elegant yet devastating interrogation into this fatal loss of self, and is part-reportage, part-philosophical inquiry, but, above all, intensely personal. A profound and powerful exploration of how society interprets and deals with a health challenge that will only deepen over the coming decades Expand reviews