Is there an audiobook of The Vanishing Family?

Yes. The Vanishing Family has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Sean Pratt.

How long is the The Vanishing Family audiobook?

The The Vanishing Family audiobook runs 10 hr 57 min.

Is The Vanishing Family on Kindle+?

No. The Vanishing Family was not included with Kindle+ when we last checked on October 26, 2026.

What formats is The Vanishing Family available in?

On Amazon, The Vanishing Family comes as a Kindle ebook, a paperback and a hardcover.

Our review

The Vanishing FamilyLove, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia

Name: The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia
Author: Robert Kolker

Robert Kolker

4.6/ 5 · Outstanding

The Vanishing Family by Robert Kolker, the author of Hidden Valley Road, is narrative science nonfiction about a Pennsylvania family of nine siblings carrying an inherited form of dementia. It braids a household's slow unraveling with the hunt for a cure, and it is hard to read and hard to put down.

Narrated by Sean Pratt

Audiobook · 10 hr 57 min

Listen free with Audible

30-day free trial. Cancel anytime.

How the narration holds up

Get the book on Amazon

KindlePaperbackHardcover

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The Review

Our take

A mother in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, still young and beautiful, turns withdrawn and neglectful, and only her youngest daughter, Barb, is home to watch it happen. The other eight children have gone off to college and lives of their own. The Vanishing Family, by Robert Kolker, who wrote Hidden Valley Road, starts with that bewildering change and then asks something harder than what went wrong with her. What do you do when the cause is written into the genes, and every child in the house has a fifty-fifty chance of inheriting it?

Stated plainly, Kolker's argument is that one family's rare form of frontotemporal dementia, followed closely enough, can show what the disease does to a person and may point toward preventing and treating dementia in general, Alzheimer's included. The first half of that claim rests on the household, and the household carries it. The disease can arrive as early as a person's forties, and it doesn't look like forgetting. Parents lose jobs, take lovers, start drinking, and shed the restraint that made them who they were. Then the siblings begin to change, one, then two, then three and four and more, and the book becomes the story of people watching a pattern they recognize from their mother close in on them. That is a distinct kind of dread, because the family's history works as a forecast, and every sibling knows which way the odds were set long before the first symptom shows.

The human cast does real work. Sue, searching for a calling, finds it in caring for the others. Barb, who saw the first signs, sets out to find a cure. Their spouses get full portraits too, and Kolker clearly likes his people, which is why the dread lands. He lets you see how each generation coped with the little they were told. With nine siblings plus the partners, though, the cast is large, and keeping everyone straight takes some effort. The sensible approach is to stop trying to hold every name and let the momentum carry you.

The other half of the argument is the science, and it holds up. The research chapters alternate with the family chapters and trace the decades of dead ends that led to the present possibility of treatment. They read like an investigation, with people chasing a cause, not like a textbook. They also explain why this family matters beyond itself. The book makes that stake concrete without pretending the outcome is settled. The people never turn into case studies, and the research never feels like a detour from the real story.

Why you should read

Hidden Valley Road and other family-centered science narratives
Medical mysteries told through real people
Anyone who has watched a relative change with dementia
Readers drawn to genetics and the search for cures

What to expect

Alternating family chapters and research history
Emotionally heavy, with a thread of hope
Fast, immersive storytelling rather than a textbook feel
A big cast, so some names will blur

The tone is harder to pin down than the structure. It is a heartbreaking book, and some pages will be rough going for anyone who has watched a relative change, yet it keeps a stubborn hopefulness and an obvious tenderness for the family. It moves fast for a work of this seriousness, with scenes kept close and specific even when the science gets dense, and it is open about the cruelty without wallowing in it. The question it circles longest is how much of any life is chance, and Kolker has the sense not to settle it.

Reviewed by Ellis · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.6/ 5

Outstanding

Listen free with Audible Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Get the book on Amazon

KindlePaperbackHardcover

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of The Vanishing Family?: Yes. The Vanishing Family has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Sean Pratt.
Listen free with Audible
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the The Vanishing Family audiobook?: The The Vanishing Family audiobook runs 10 hr 57 min.
Is The Vanishing Family on Kindle+?: No. The Vanishing Family was not included with Kindle+ when we last checked on October 26, 2026.
What formats is The Vanishing Family available in?: On Amazon, The Vanishing Family comes as a Kindle ebook, a paperback and a hardcover.

Filed underScience Journalism Browse the archive →

CollectionsBook Club Picks Hidden Gems Browse collections →

More by Robert KolkerSee every Robert Kolker book we've reviewed, with our scores.All Robert Kolker books →

E-readersReading on your phone? See which e-reader to get.E-reader guide →

Common questions

What is The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia about?: A mother in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, still young and beautiful, turns withdrawn and neglectful, and only her youngest daughter, Barb, is home to watch it happen. The other eight children have gone off to college and lives of their own. The Vanishing Family, by Robert Kolker, who wrote Hidden…
Is The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia worth reading?: We scored The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia 4.6 out of 5. The Vanishing Family by Robert Kolker, the author of Hidden Valley Road, is narrative science nonfiction about a Pennsylvania family of nine siblings carrying an inherited form of dementia. It braids a household's slow unraveling with the hunt for a cure, and it is hard to read…

Related books

View all

Hidden Valley Road

Robert Kolker

Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body

Andrew D. Huberman

Take Me to Your Leader: Perspectives on Your First Alien Encounter

Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Michael Lewis

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

Matthew Walker PhD

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

John J. Ratey MD

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Michael Pollan

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Michael Pollan