A prolific poet as a child, Barbara Drake-Vera loved writing almost as much as she adored her father, a moody postal employee with an elaborate comb-over and a fondness for Mahler. But when her successes sparked his rage, Barbara silenced her voice for years, terrified even to see her name in print. By age forty-nine, she was a professional journalist living in Peru and collaborating with her husband, a Peruvian-born photographer, to report on melting glaciers in the Andes, far from the reach of her father. Melted Away recounts what happens after her father is diagnosed with advancing Alzheimer’s and Barbara takes him into her home in Lima, beginning a process of self-discovery that uncovers a path toward personal and family healing. A diverse group of allies support her on this quest: a trio of caregiving women from the provinces, who serve as home-health aides; a mischievous, Cervantes-quoting, nonagenarian suitor; and a stubborn alpaca herder who lives beneath a long-worshipped, life-sustaining Andean glacier now melting from rapid climate change. Candid, poignant, and deeply researched, Melted Away is the true story of how a writer at midlife reclaims her agency, and an ardent plea to care for the planet by embracing collectivism and mutual aid. "Fascinating ... moving ... a compelling account of caring for family and the enviroment." -- Kirkus Reviews "Written with an impressive degree of literary elegance ... an extraordinary memoir that will be of particular appreciation for readers with an interest in climatology and environmental science, the country and people of Peru, and the impact of Alzheimer's on complex family relationships. Exceptional and highly recommended." -- Midwest Book Review Bookwatch ""An exquisite blend of memoir and environmental reporting from the precipice of the climate crisis. Barbara Drake-Vera's braided stories of caregiving and climate change in Peru evoke Barry Lopez in witness to trauma in childhood, in a vanishing glacier, and among the Andean people mortally and spiritually reliant on its melting ice. Her writing luminesces like that blue glacier through to the last, perfect words." -- Cynthia Barnett, author of The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans "Barbara Drake-Vera takes us on a personal journey of discovery. With her adept storytelling and brutally honest introspection, she helps humanize the pain of the unfolding climate crisis." —MIchael E. Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth & Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, author of Our Fragile Moment and The New Climate War "Drake-Vera's wonderful memoir scales both the Andes and the towering mystery of how to care for an unlovable father. Melted Away is about compassion, for both a declining father and a failing environment." —Jill Ciment, author of Consent: A Memoir Barbara Drake-Vera is an award-winning fiction writer and journalist who lives in Gainesville, Florida. From 2007 to 2014, she resided in Peru, where she worked as a field producer for NBC Nightly News and the TODAY Show .