These days, having your DNA analyzed is almost as common as owning a smartphone, so when Dani Shapiro jumped on the trend, she thought she was just taking a measure of her genetic heritage. She didn’t ...

INHERITANCE: A Memoir of Geneaology, Paternity, and Love, by Dani Shapiro. Alfred A. Knopf, 247 pp., $24.95. Late last year, scores of people received DNA testing kits as holiday gifts; ancestry.com ...

Joselin Linder carries a rare mutation in her genes that is unique to the Linder family. The mutation causes a disease that killed her father in middle age and four other members of her family. In her ...

Our March book club pick for Now Read This, the PBS NewsHour’s book club with The New York Times, is Dani Shapiro’s “Inheritance,” a memoir about grappling with the unexpected results of an ancestry ...

A DNA test, taken on a whim, leads to a startling result and a big meditation on the meaning of ancestry and family. Author Dani Shapiro tells her story in the celebrated new book, “Inheritance.” She ...

It only took a little spit in a vial and an email to blow up Dani Shapiro's world. Shapiro was in her mid-50s, the author of four novels and four memoirs, a wife and the mother of a teenage son. Her ...

Known for candid memoirs that explore her own family history, Dani Shapiro was unprepared for a routine DNA test to shatter everything she understood about her origins. After sending off for an ...

Dani Shapiro learned through a DNA test that she was not her father's biological daughter. She wrote about the revelation — and her quest for answers — in her new memoir, Inheritance. (Michael Maren / ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The church publishes the ...

Take a look at a photo of the writer Dani Shapiro and you will likely agree: She doesn't look Jewish. But since she certainly is – she's the daughter of Orthodox Jews and remains deeply involved with ...