
What results is an exploration of family secrets, a painful rebuilding of her sense of self, and an understanding of how we manage whatever life tosses our way. discovered that her father was not her biological father. Shapiro surprises us again with her latest meditation. This beautifully written, thought-provoking genealogical mystery will captivate readers from the very first pages. With thoughtful candor, explores the ethical questions surrounding sperm donation, the consequences of DNA testing…. They have one child and live in Litchfield County (Bethlehem), Connecticut.

In 1997 she married screenwriter Michael Maren. She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU, the New School, and Wesleyan University she is cofounder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. Shapiro's short fiction, essays, and journalistic pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, Vogue, Oprah Magazine, New York Times Book Review, the op-ed pages of the New York Times, and many other publications. She has also the author of several novels, including Black & White (2007) and Family History (2004).

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? Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and LoveĪ 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.
