Dani Shapiro is the author of eleven books, and the host and creator of the hit podcast Family Secrets. Her most recent novel, Signal Fires, was named a best book of 2022 by NPR, Time Magazine, Washington Post, Amazon, and others, and is a national bestseller. Her most recent memoir, Inheritance, was an instant New York Times Bestseller, and named a best book of 2019 by Elle, Vanity Fair, Wired, and Real Simple. Both Signal Fires and Inheritance were winners of the National Jewish Book Award. Dani’s work has been published in fourteen languages and she’s currently developing Signal Fires for its television adaptation. Dani’s book on the process and craft of writing, Still Writing, has just been reissued on the occasion of its tenth anniversary. She occasionally teaches workshops and retreats, and is the co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy.
Signal Fires: A Gripping New Novel From the Author of Inheritance
NATIONAL BEST SELLER • From the beloved author of Inheritance: “a haunting, moving, and propulsive exploration of family secrets” (Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings)
A TIME Best Fiction Book of the Year • An NPR Best Book of the Year • A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction • A Real Simple Best Book of the Year • Winner of The National Jewish Book Award
Two families. One night. A constellation of lives changed forever.
An ancient majestic oak stands beneath the stars on Division Street. And under the tree sits Ben Wilf, a retired doctor, and ten-year-old Waldo Shenkman, a brilliant, lonely boy who is pointing out his favorite constellations. Waldo doesn’t realize it but he and Ben have met before. And they will again, and again. Across time and space, and shared destiny.
Division Street is full of secrets. An impulsive lie begets a secret—one which will forever haunt the Wilf family. And the Shenkmans, who move into the neighborhood many years later, bring secrets of their own.. Spanning fifty kaleidoscopic years, on a street—and in a galaxy—where stars collapse and stories collide, these two families become bound in ways they never could have imagined.
Urgent and compassionate, Signal Fires is a magical story for our times, a literary tour de force by a masterful storyteller at the height of her powers. A luminous meditation on family, memory, and the healing power of interconnectedness.
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
What makes us who we are? What combination of memory, history, biology, experience, and that ineffable thing called the soul defines us?
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. She woke up one morning and her entire history–the life she had lived–crumbled beneath her.
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. It is the story of a woman’s urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in–a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.
Upcoming Appearances
Thursday, June 5, 2025
New Haven, CT
Yale Writers Workshop at 2:00 PM
Craft Talk, Reading, and Q&A
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Kennebunkport, ME
Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy
More details coming soon
Dani Shapiro wins her second National Jewish Book Award, and her first JJ Greenberg Memorial Award for Fiction, for Signal Fires.
Signal Fires named one of Time Magazine’s 10 Best Fiction Books of 2022 and Must Read Books of 2022
Dani Shapiro Shares Excerpt From Her Upcoming Novel Signal Fires, Her ‘Most Personal Book’ Yet
Entertainment Weekly announces Dani’s forthcoming novel – the first in 15 years! – Signal Fires. Knopf will publish in fall 2022.
The paperback edition of Inheritance is an LA Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and San Francisco Chronicle, and National Indie bestseller!
Dani’s podcast, “Family Secrets” launched into the top 10 of all podcasts on Apple! The podcast has over 33 million downloads, and its ninth season launched on November 9, 2023. Its tenth season is currently in production.
Inheritance has won the 2019 National Jewish Book Award!
Wired Magazine names Inheritance as one of 2019’s top Science books!
Inheritance named a best book of 2019 by Vanity Fair!
Inheritance will be adapted for film by Killer Films!
The New Yorker includes Inheritance in their summer reading round up!
The Today Show features Inheritance in their “20 Beach Reads You Won’t Want to Put Down” segment.
Inheritance debuted on The New York Times Best Seller List at #11!
Daunt Books in the UK has won an auction to publish Inheritance!
Thanks to everyone who watched Dani on Super Soul Sunday
