In the novel Half a Kingdom by American writer Laura Segal, doctors at New York's Cedars of Lebanon Hospital notice that Alzheimer's disease is spreading at a mysterious rate among their patients. What is the reason? In aging, as doctors believe, or in the machinations of terrorists who thus plotted to hasten the end of the world, as suggested by retired scientist Joe Bernstein. To get to the bottom of the truth, Joe Bernstein introduces a group of his friends with their now adult children into the somewhat Kafkaesque world of the hospital. “Half a Kingdom” is a hilariously funny and at the same time piercingly bitter story about how old people live, love and die in America.