Inheritance is a book about secrets-secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. She woke up one morning and her entire history-the life she had lived-crumbled beneath her. In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. What makes us who we are? What combination of memory, history, biology, experience, and that ineffable thing called the soul defines us?

“Beautifully written and deeply moving-it brought me to tears more than once.”-Ruth Franklin, The New York Times Book Reviewįrom the acclaimed, best-selling memoirist, novelist-“a writer of rare talent” (Cheryl Strayed)- and host of the hit podcast Family Secrets, comes a memoir about the staggering family secret uncovered by a genealogy test: an exploration of the urgent ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing, and a profound inquiry of paternity, identity, and love. “Memoir gold: a profound and exquisitely rendered exploration of identity and the true meaning of family.” - People Magazine A LOS ANGELES TIMES, BOSTON GLOBE, WALL STREET JOURNAL, and NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLERĪ BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR according to Elle, Real Simple, and Kirkus Reviews

Inheritance novel by dani shapiro