Dani Shapiro is the best-selling author of four memoirs, Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion, and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Her books span diverse subjects from her tumultuous upbringing in an Orthodox Jewish community and the tragic death of her father to her explorations of spirituality and the nature of our deepest relationships.
Inheritance has been featured on the following lists of Most Anticipated Books of 2019: Bustle, Lit Hub, Pop Sugar, Washington Post, Real Simple, Vulture, Nylon, USA Today, Oprah Magazine, and Saturday Evening Post.
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
- available from
- Amazon
- Indiebound
- Powell's
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
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Brooklyn, NY
Books Are Magic at 7:30 pm
In conversation with Meg Wolitzer
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Washington, CT
Community Table Restaurant at 3:00 pm
In collaboration with Hickory Stick Bookshop
Spend a weekend with Dani for an immersive and inspirational retreat this winter!!
Join Dani Shapiro for an inspiring experience that stays with you long after you return home. Through a powerful blend of meditation and movement accessible to everyone, generative writing exercises, group sharing, and discussion, we explore the courage, persistence, and patience that it takes to dive into memory and generate new work.
