The Last Ocean: A Journey Through Memory and Forgetting - Nicci Gerrard - 2019 (Memoirs) [Audiobook] (miok)

The Last Ocean - Nicci Gerrard - 2019
A Journey Through Memory and Forgetting



By: Nicci Gerrard
Narrated by: Nicci Gerrard
Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 08-13-19
Language: English
Genre: Personal Memoirs
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Format: mp3 64/44.1 stereo

Publisher's Summary

From the award-winning journalist and author, a lyrical, raw and humane investigation of dementia that explores both the journeys of the people who live with the condition and those of their loved ones...

After a diagnosis of dementia, Nicci Gerrard’s father, John, continued to live life on his own terms, alongside the disease. But when an isolating hospital stay precipitated a dramatic turn for the worse, Gerrard, an award-winning journalist and author, recognized that it was not just the disease, but misguided protocol and harmful practices that cause such pain at the end of life. Gerrard was inspired to seek a better course for all who suffer because of the disease.

The Last Ocean is Gerrard’s investigation into what dementia does to both the person who lives with the condition and to their caregivers. Dementia is now one of the leading causes of death in the West, and this necessary book will offer both comfort and a map to those walking through it. While she begins with her father’s long slip into forgetting, Gerrard expands to examine dementia writ large. Gerrard gives raw but literary shape both to the unimaginable loss of one’s own faculties, as well as to the pain of their loved ones. Her lens is unflinching, but Gerrard honors her subjects and finds the beauty and the humanity in their seemingly diminished states.

In so doing, she examines the philosophy of what it means to have a self, as well as how we can offer dignity and peace to those who suffer with this terrible disease. Not only will it aid those walking with dementia patients, The Last Ocean will prompt all of us to think on the nature of a life well lived.

©2019 Nicci Gerrard (P)2019-2100 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

“Revelatory and moving...carr[ies] both an emotional and a philosophical charge... A beacon of a book amid a sea of darkness.” (Kirkus, starred review)

“Nicci Gerrard exudes understanding of the breadth, scale and complexity of the dementias and the challenges they pose for society. Yet she communicates simply, personally and practically as if speaking individually to each of us.” (Sebastian Crutch, professor of Neuropsychology, Dementia Research Centre, University College London)

“Nicci Gerrard writes with power, insight, empathy and extraordinary beauty about the world of dementia...and demonstrates how we can address the fear, despair and ignorance that has accompanied its spread.” (Paul Webster, editor of the Observer)





24/7 Seedbox Support