Valley of Forgetting - by Jennie Erin Smith (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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 Medellâin 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 Medellâin 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"--

Book Synopsis

"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 Medellín 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 Medellín 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.

Review Quotes

"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--one that begins long before death itself. In her willingness to sit with contradictions--hope and despair, progress and stagnation, science and faith--Smith elegantly captures what it means to love, to belong, to hold on to one another when so much is uncertain." --Washington Post

"The book left me aching and enraged. . . . Clinical trials are essential, but we must not ignore the turmoil of the participants - people to whom Smith has finally given identities." --New Scientist

"Comprehensive. . . [Ms. Smith] braved some fairly dangerous situations to get the full story. . . . Compelling." --Wall Street Journal

"Intelligent, empathetic, and outstanding in its observational detail, Valley of Forgetting is a work celebrating medical research crafted by a writer of extraordinary talent." --Booklist (starred review)

"A multigenerational saga that is a compelling story in itself. . . . [Smith] has spent years inside the homes of both the patients and the researchers, and in exam rooms and other intimate spaces that give the author a stunning level of vivid firsthand detail." --BookPage (starred review)

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

"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

"Anyone who still holds a Dawkinsian view of science as abstract and logical should read Valley of Forgetting. . . . [a] valuable guide." --Times Literary Supplement

"A fascinating tale of scientific detective work." --Town & Country

About the Author

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.