author of The Bishop's Daughter - Honor Moore
“Navigating the onset of her own dementia with intelligence and charm, Gerda Saunders has written an engaging mélange of reflection, family history and quest. MEMORY’S LAST BREATH is a surprising and subtly triumphant contribution to the literature of recollection.”
author of The Good Death for Beacon - Ann Neumann
"Gerda Saunders' MEMORY'S LAST BREATH is not only a how-to manual for navigating the emotional and physiological terrain of dementiaan illness that effects the daily lives and hopes of millionsbut a highly compelling account of the life of the mind, its developments, repetitions, omissions, and flourishes. Through eloquent, unwavering prose, Saunders guides us through the horrors and humors of an illness that is slowly erasing her mental and physical memory; her insights are lessons in longevity. Above all things, MEMORY'S LAST BREATH is indeliblea testament to the capacity of language both in a writer's life and a reader's."
National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree - Andrew Solomon
"This courageous and singular book describes both the indignities inscribed in the erosion of memory and the surprising grace to be found in that experience. At once observer and subject, Gerda Saunders demonstrates how a powerful intellect can remain undiminished even as other mental capacities are compromised. Her book's lessons in dignity will be invaluable to anyone facing the complex meanings of dementia."
Dr., Director of the SAGE Center for the Study of Mind at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of Tal - Michael Gazzaniga
“The abrupt loss of everyday memory due to brain injury is swiftly and seriously unsettling. Its slower, subtle decline, the hallmark of dementia, provides time for introspection on its troubling trajectory. Gerda Saunders has given us a window into that chilling, yet poignant, psychological reality. MEMORY’S LAST BREATH is personal, lucid, and inspiring.”