Short Synopsis
An inspiring race against time: The courageous, hopeful story of the one family who may hold the key to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.

Full Synopsis
Every sixty-nine seconds, someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Of the top ten killers, it is the only disease for which there is no cure or treatment. For most people, there is nothing that they can do to fight back. But one family is doing all they can.

The DeMoe family has the most devastating form of the disease that there is: early onset Alzheimer’s, an inherited genetic mutation that causes the disease in 100 percent of cases, and has a 50 percent chance of being passed onto the next generation. Of the six DeMoe children whose father had it, five have inherited the gene; the sixth, Karla, has inherited responsibility for all of them. But rather than give up in the face of such news, the DeMoes have agreed to spend their abbreviated years as part of a worldwide study that could utterly change the landscape of Alzheimer’s research and offers the brightest hope for future treatments—and possibly a cure.

Drawing from several years of in-depth research with this charming and upbeat family, journalist Niki Kapsambelis tells the story of Alzheimer’s through the humanizing lens of these ordinary people made extraordinary by both their terrible circumstances and their bravery.

"In her debut, journalist Kapsambelis builds a compelling narrative about Alzheimer’s disease around one North Dakota extended family. . . . An educational and emotional chronicle that should resonate with a wide variety of readers." ---Kirkus Starred Review

"I felt honored to read this important book, bearing witness to a historic moment in the quest to cure Alzheimer's." ---Lisa Genova, New York Times bestselling author

"Kapsambelis is a beautiful writer whose storytelling transports you. I fell in love with the big, loud, awesome DeMoe family and was inspired by the doctors on their long, strange journey into Alzheimer's research. The Inheritance offers a rare, human glimpse at this harrowing disease." ---Jeanne Marie Laskas, New York Times bestselling author

"Niki Kapsambelis has produced an unflinching narrative of a family in an unfathomable situation, seamlessly weaving in the history of the disease and neuroscience's ongoing race against the clock to find a cure. This is a truly important book." ---Susannah Cahalan, New York Times bestselling author

"Kapsambelis skillfully interweaves the quest to conquer Alzheimer’s with the saga of a few families at the center of the latest research. . . . At its most compelling, The Inheritance is a portrait of the DeMoes’ experience as both Alzheimer’s sufferers and research subjects." ---The Wall Street Journal

"Kapsambelis both zooms in on the DeMoes and zooms out to give the big picture of this heartbreaking disease . . . With its ethical quandaries and likeable characters, this absorbing story will be of interest to medically curious readers." ---Booklist

"A science text that reads like a mystery and treats its subjects with humanity and sympathy, this volume should be of interest to everyone, as Alzheimer's is now known to be a major cause of dementia in the elderly and because we are facing a potential epidemic as the baby boom generation ages." ---Library Journal Starred Review

Kirkus Bestseller

Kirkus Review

Library Journal Review