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'A touchingly exact and superbly composed account written by a real writer. This is the best and most expert book on Alzheimer's that I have read and it should be closely read by every caregiver.' - John Bayley A beautifully written and deeply humane account of caring for someone with Alzheimer's that anyone even remotely connected to the care of a person with this devastating disease should read. A bestseller in hardback in the USA, it demonstrates what love is, at the core and stripped of hope and illusion.

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Library Journal Review

Alterra is the pseudonym of a prolific and award-winning short story writer and novelist who wishes to protect his wife's privacy. Like many a spouse of an Alzheimer's patient, he realizes that he missed the early warnings of this disease, which slowly robs victims of memory and ultimately all intellectual and physical functions. Alterra, who made the decision to become the primary caregiver, writes of his experiences here. As he discovers, life with an Alzheimer's patient is an ever-changing series of challenges; for instance, Alterra's wife lost her ability to walk but not to dance, so husband and wife dance from bed to chair or room to room. Alterra's book will strike a chord with anyone who has a family member with Alzheimer's: the search for understanding, the hallucinations, mood changes, loss of mental and physical functioning, and unpredictable nature of the disease. For most health collections.ÄJodith Janes, Cleveland Clinic Foundation (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Despite promising research, Alzheimer's disease cannot be arrested by medical intervention. So it has fallen to Alterra to monitor and care for his wife, Stella (a pseudonym, as is the author's name), who was formerly an accomplished cellist and is now almost completely dependent on her husband. He first became aware that Stella might have Alzheimer's when she lost some short-term memory and had difficulty driving and cooking. He had a good relationship with their primary care physician but, once Stella was diagnosed, Alterra quickly learned that the best place to get help was through the Alzheimer's Association. In this thoughtful and honest memoir, Alterra effectively impresses on the reader that the "primary physician" is not the doctor but the caregiver who lives with the patient. Through a drug trial, he obtained medication that slowed his wife's decline; he also followed up on the association's recommendations of caregiver and patient support groups. Alterra offers a touching account of how he still makes an effort to engage his wife in conversation. Anyone going through the same experience will benefit from his description of how he has coped with problems such as Stella's seeming inability to eat and her incontinence. He also provides a vivid depiction of the tortuous health care labyrinth he was forced to navigate by Medicare, which, in effect, provides almost no coverage for Alzheimer's. Although Alterra is committed to care for his wife as long as possible, as her condition worsens, he is currently weighing the possibility of moving into a nursing home with her. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Alterra (a pseudonym) is a novelist whose fiction-writing skills make this book on a difficult subject readable and effective. He and his wife, Stella, were in their mid-eighties when the book was written. At that time, she had noticeably had Alzheimer's for five years. In describing their lives, he is intimate but never maudlin. Other companions of Alzheimer's patients will recognize many of the events, feelings, and problems he depicts. Since he had long had memory problems, he was late in fully recognizing Stella's difficulties until the evening that Stella, having asked him whether he would like turnips for dinner, set the table with a single dinner plate bearing one huge turnip. How do you find a good doctor? What do you tell children, friends, and colleagues? How does your role with your spouse change? What are your problems as a caregiver? How do you find helpful support groups? The Caregiver combines the practicality of Alterra's suggestions about such questions and the deeply but realistically loving tone of a caregiver's voice. --William Beatty