Tag: Elderly
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“The Hard Word Box” by Sarah Hesketh
In 2013, the English poet Sarah Hesketh spent a period of almost five months visiting residents in a residential care home for people living with dementia. She wrote about her experiences, her encounters and the lives of the people she met in this series of moving and evocative poems. The poems are poignant, funny, compassionate…
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“The Latecomer” by Dimitri Verlhurst
Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer Meet Désiré Cordier, a very unusual kind of hero. Fed up with the drudgery of retired life, hen-pecked by a bossy wife and irritated by his extended family, retired librarian Désiré hatches a cunning plan. He will gradually feign the symptoms of Dementia until he lands himself a…
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“Unbecoming” by Jenny Downham
Jenny Downham’s Young Adult novel about three generations of women has received rave reviews and I can absolutely see why. Unbecoming is a gripping read from the very first sentence. “It was like an alien had landed. Really, it was that weird.” Seventeen year old Katie’s estranged grandma comes crashing into her life in dramatic fashion. Mary…
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“An Absent Mind” by Eric Rill
An Absent Mind is a slim novel set in contemporary Canada. It explores the impact of a Dementia diagnosis on a close family unit. The novel opens with the patriarch, Saul beginning to acknowledge his own mental confusion. It moves through his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, the advent of the illness and subsequent decline, his move to a…