Idle old man,
That still would manage those authorities
That he hath given away!–Now, by my life,
Old fools are babes again…

WHEN HE FINISHED his talk, Alois turned to the audience. There were nearly 100 guests in attendance, which usually assured a lively discussion. Alois–frank and commanding with a stout face, coiffed moustache, piercing gaze and immense stature–waited confidently. But no one spoke. Had they not understood him? Sensing an uncomfortable silence, the chairman intervened: 'So there, respected colleague Alzheimer, I thank you for your remarks, clearly there is no desire for discussion.'

It was 3 November 1906. Dr Alois Alzheimer, a psychiatrist in Munich, was at the South-West German Psychiatrists' meeting in Tübingen to describe a fifty-six-year-old woman with a peculiar and unexplained mental disorder. Her name was Auguste Deter.

Auguste had been brought to Alzheimer four years earlier by her husband Karl, a railroad worker who had spent the last eight months watching his wife's behaviour deteriorate. The couple had been married for twenty-eight years, had one daughter, and were living a normal, healthy and happy life together.

But things changed when Auguste became inexplicably paranoid about the relationship between Karl and their female neighbour. More disturbing still was Auguste's severe decline in memory. She was the epitome of a good German housewife, and so it struck Karl as highly unusual when she started neglecting her housework and making mistakes in the kitchen. Over the next few months Auguste wandered aimlessly round their apartment, hiding family possessions and speaking ominously of death. Her delusions resulted in panic when she started to believe that a carriage driver was trying to break into the apartment.

Excerpted from In Pursuit of Memory by Joseph Jebelli. Copyright © 2017 by Joseph Jebelli. Excerpted by permission of Little Brown & Company. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.