A brilliant new novel about life, death, and growing old in today's America. 

The renowned New Yorker writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lore Segal creates a hilarious, poignant, and profoundly moving portrait of life today---where terrorist paranoia and end-of-the-world hysteria mask deeper fears of mortality; where parents and their grown children vacillate between frustration and tenderness; and where the broken medical system leads one character to quip, "Kafka wrote slice-of-life fiction." 

At Cedars of Lebanon hospital the doctors have noticed a marked uptick in Alzheimer's patients. People who seemed perfectly lucid just a day earlier suddenly show signs of advanced dementia. Is it just normal aging or an epidemic? Is it a coincidence or a secret terrorist plot? With buoyant black humor, Segal masterfully interweaves her characters' disparate lives---lives that will, for good or for ill, all converge in Cedars' ER. 

Funny, tragic, and tender---with a deep humanity and a great appreciation for the absurd---Segal's writing always surprises, making Half the Kingdom both a brilliant portrait of life in America today, and a joy to read.