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

In this powerful report, journalist Smith (Stolen World) details neurologist Francisco Lopera Restrepo’s quest to understand the epidemic of early-onset dementia afflicting families in the rural Antioquia region of Colombia. Smith recounts the herculean efforts of Lopera and his team, who began gathering family genealogies and blood samples against the backdrop of the 1980s Medellín drug wars in the hope of “unlocking the disease’s secrets.” In addition to dodging cartel members, the doctors had to win the trust of afflicted families and counter local beliefs that witchcraft was to blame. The author documents how over the ensuing decades, Lopera helped identify a genetic mutation responsible for the epidemic, compiled a registry of some 6,000 carriers in Antioquia, and conducted a major clinical trial of a potential dementia treatment, though the drug was found to be ineffective. Smith offers an accessible overview of how genetic factors contribute to dementia, but the real draw is the finely observed portrait of Lopera and the heart-rending stories of young Antioquians left to care for dying parents and siblings, whose mental declines start as early as their mid-30s, while grappling with the fear that they might also carry the mutation. It’s a poignant depiction of a community in crisis. Agent: Lynn Johnston, Lynn Johnston Literary. (Apr.)