
Inheritance
A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
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Narrated by:
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Dani Shapiro
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By:
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Dani Shapiro
About this listen
An Instant New York Times Best Seller
A Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, and National Indie Best Seller
A Best Book of the Year According to Elle, Real Simple, and Kirkus Reviews
"Memoir gold: a profound and exquisitely rendered exploration of identity and the true meaning of family." (People Magazine)
"Beautifully written and deeply moving - it brought me to tears more than once." (Ruth Franklin, The New York Times Book Review)
From 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.
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 an audiobook 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 50 years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. It is an audiobook 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.
©2019 Dani Shapiro (P)2019 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
New York Times Editors' Choice
A Washington Post, Vulture, Bustle, Real Simple, PopSugar, and LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2019
“[An] engrossing, compassionate memoir.... As in the best writing on the self, the point is the integrity of her search.” —Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker
“The writing is that of a true storyteller who will not stop until she has bored down to the bottom of where she came from, and in this she is at her narrative best.” —Oprah Magazine
“As compulsively readable as a mystery novel, while exploring the deeper mysteries of identity and family and truth itself... a story told with great insight and honesty and heart.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Editor's Pick
The dark side of DNA testing
"When I first heard about Inheritance, I have to admit I wrinkled my nose a little—hadn’t I already listened to enough memoirs about FAMILY SECRETS and COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIPS? I mean, sure, it’s one of my favorite sub-genres, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Inheritance, as it turns out, is a perfect little jewel of a memoir. Well into her adult life, Dani Shapiro took a DNA test on a whim—only to discover that her beloved Orthodox Jewish father was not, in fact, her biological father. Naturally, inner turmoil ensues as she sets out to uncover the truth about her past. I don’t know how she does it, but Shapiro’s memoir is somehow an impossible combination of beautiful words, soul-searching insight, and fast-paced thrills. *And* her narration is amazing too—what??! I can think of only one plausible explanation: she must be some kind of word sorcerer."
—Rachel S., Audible Editor
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Slow Motion
- A Memoir of a Life Rescued by Tragedy
- By: Dani Shapiro
- Narrated by: Dani Shapiro
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Dani Shapiro was a young girl from a deeply religious home who became the girlfriend of a famous and flamboyant married attorney - her best friend's stepfather. The moment Lenny Klein entered her life, everything changed: She dropped out of college, began to drink heavily, and became estranged from her family and friends. But then the phone call came. There had been an accident on a snowy road near her family's home in New Jersey, and both her parents lay hospitalized in critical condition.
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Even in the most mundane moments, this sings
- By Ashley Story on 01-31-21
By: Dani Shapiro
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Still Writing
- The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life
- By: Dani Shapiro
- Narrated by: Dani Shapiro
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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From Dani Shapiro, best-selling author of Devotion and Slow Motion, comes a witty, heartfelt, and practical look at the exhilarating and challenging process of storytelling. At once a memoir, a meditation on the artistic process, and advice on craft, Still Writing is an intimate companion to living a creative life. Writers - and anyone with an artistic temperament - will find inspiration and comfort here.
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Inspiring but dark, better to read than listen
- By Raquel on 10-22-21
By: Dani Shapiro
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Miss Aluminum
- A Memoir
- By: Susanna Moore
- Narrated by: Susanna Moore
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1963 after the death of her mother, 17-year-old Susanna Moore leaves her home in Hawai’i with no money, no belongings, and no prospects. Her journey takes her from New York to Los Angeles where she becomes a model and meets Joan Didion and Audrey Hepburn. She works as a script reader for Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson, and is given a screen test by Mike Nichols. But beneath Miss Aluminum's glittering fairy-tale surface lies the story of a girl’s insatiable hunger to learn and her anguished determination to understand the circumstances of her mother’s death.
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Great Story Told in a Distracting Granny Voice
- By Sweet Valley High on 04-19-20
By: Susanna Moore
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Touched by the Sun
- My Friendship with Jackie
- By: Carly Simon
- Narrated by: Elizabeth McGovern
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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A chance encounter at a summer party on Martha’s Vineyard blossomed into an improbable but enduring friendship. Carly Simon and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis made an unlikely pair - Carly, a free and artistic spirit still reeling from her recent divorce, searching for meaning, new love, and an anchor; and Jackie, one of the most celebrated, meticulous, unknowable women in American history. Nonetheless, over the next decade their lives merged in inextricable and complex ways, and they forged a connection deeper than either could ever have foreseen.
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Self absorbed!
- By Stephanie l. on 03-19-20
By: Carly Simon
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The Next Chapter
- Making Peace with Hard Memories, Finding Hope All Around Me, and Clearing Space for Good Things to Come
- By: Jana Kramer
- Narrated by: Jana Kramer
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The Next Chapter is Jana Kramer’s intimate and moving account about setting her life back on the right path after her sudden divorce. Chronicling the year that follows, Jana relives personal stories of early traumas and past relationships, and with raw honesty she shares topics dear to her heart and music, including hearing God, loving oneself, navigating setbacks, female friendships, grief, and motherhood.
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I like Jana as a performer and actress. I appreciate her sharing her story and the courage it took to put her pain on paper.
- By Carrie on 05-30-24
By: Jana Kramer
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MeatEater's Campfire Stories: Close Calls
- By: Steven Rinella
- Narrated by: Steven Rinella, the Contributors
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In Campfire Stories: Close Calls, Steven Rinella invites seasoned hunters, anglers, adventurers, and outdoor professionals to share their tales of perilous adventures in the natural world, from run-ins with black bears and grizzlies to bad falls and severe hypothermia.
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Incredible
- By Jay Sellmer on 07-20-21
By: Steven Rinella
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Whale Fall
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth O'Connor
- Narrated by: Dyfrig Morris, Gabrielle Glaister, Gwyneth Keyworth, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1938, a dead whale washes up on the shores of remote Welsh island. For Manod, who has spent her whole life on the island, it feels like both a portent of doom and a symbol of what may lie beyond the island's shores. A young woman living with her father and her sister (to whom she has reluctantly but devotedly become a mother following the death of their own mother years prior), Manod can't shake her welling desire to explore life beyond the beautiful yet blisteringly harsh islands that her hardscrabble family has called home for generations.
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Excellent book for audible
- By Lilly on 01-01-25
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The Summer of 1876
- Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends in the Season That Defined the American West
- By: Chris Wimmer
- Narrated by: Chris Wimmer, Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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The summer of 1876 was a key time period in the development of the mythology of the Old West. Many individuals who are considered legends by modern listeners were involved in events that began their notoriety or turned out to be the most famous—or infamous—moments of their lives. Those individuals were Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickok, and Jesse James. The Summer of 1876 weaves together the timelines of the events that made these men legends.
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Like History? You will thoroughly enjoy this book!
- By JRC on 04-26-24
By: Chris Wimmer
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The Inheritance
- A Novel
- By: Trisha Sakhlecha
- Narrated by: Avita Jay, Ellie Kendrick, Tamaryn Payne
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet the Agarwals, who have gathered on a private, luxury island off the west coast of Scotland for a much-anticipated family reunion. They’ve all got secrets they would die to protect. Who will survive this high-stakes reunion, and who will become a victim of their own greed? One thing is certain: this family gathering will shatter more than just their illusions of unity.
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Family Loyalty
- By Jennifer D Wheaton on 02-24-25
By: Trisha Sakhlecha
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Free
- My Search for Meaning
- By: Amanda Knox
- Narrated by: Amanda Knox
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Amanda Knox spent nearly four years in prison and eight years on trial for a murder she didn’t commit—and became a notorious tabloid story in the process. Though she was exonerated, it’s taken more than a decade for her to reclaim her identity and truly feel free. Free recounts how Knox survived incarceration, the mistakes she made, the misadventures she had reintegrating into society, and culminates in the untold story of her return to Italy—and the extraordinary relationship she's built with the man who sent her to prison.
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Amanda walks her talk.
- By Nikki Lee on 04-09-25
By: Amanda Knox
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In the Kingdom of Ice
- The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: The North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of "Arctic Fever." The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship.
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Superb tale that unravels at an iceburg's pace
- By Mel on 03-19-15
By: Hampton Sides
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The Book of Murder
- A Prosecutor's Journey Through Love and Death
- By: Matt Murphy
- Narrated by: Matt Murphy
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Examining murder from an insider’s perspective, Matt Murphy—a former senior deputy district attorney and current ABC News legal analyst—discusses cases from his career, how they strained his personal life, and how he found peace seeking justice for victims and their families. Part taxonomy of murder, part prosecutor’s handbook, and part personal memoir, The Book of Murder goes through a dozen cases and his recollections of his 26 years in the Orange County DA’s office (17 in the Homicide Unit).
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Great book
- By Last Lemming on 10-04-24
By: Matt Murphy
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The First Ladies
- By: Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
- Narrated by: Robin Miles, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune refuses to back down as white supremacists attempt to thwart her work. She marches on as an activist and an educator, and as her reputation grows she becomes a celebrity, revered by titans of business and recognized by U.S. Presidents. Eleanor Roosevelt herself is awestruck and eager to make her acquaintance.
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A Wake Up Call to history and today
- By JoeKristina Smith on 07-11-23
By: Marie Benedict, and others
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The Sunflower House
- A Novel
- By: Adriana Allegri
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Dallin Bradford, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it's 1939, Adolf Hitler is Chancellor, and Allina’s family hides a terrifying secret—her birth mother was Jewish, making her a Mischling. One fateful night after losing everyone she loves, Allina is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. There, she becomes both witness and participant to the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program.
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Another WW2 book
- By Cathyst on 05-02-25
By: Adriana Allegri
A spellbinding book
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Good but might have been condensed a bit.
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inheritance
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Thank you Dani Shapiro for this beautiful work and for sharing your story.
Love this memoir
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I very much enjoyed this book.
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Some of the story was a bit too contrived and mushy. Overall a very interesting listen.
Wonderful story
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great
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It seems that her story could not have unfolded differently — that the synchronicity of her unique circumstances carved out her journey as a writer and her willingness to mine the gold in her cavernous family history which has helped her emerge as a literary phoenix through the fire of her own life.
Sparse, raw, personal, inquisitive, questioning, investigative and revealing, Ms. Shapiro bares all — no detail left unexamined — no matter how painful.
In her earlier memoir, DEVOTION — (while immersed on a spiritual quest exploring how to find contentment while examining her chaotic life) — she finds herself at a meditation retreat and is the only one who raises her hand when queried — in the hopes of discovering the answer to her life’s pressing questions which resolves itself with: “I wish to die unconfused.”
I am happy she has been able to decode her past and find some comfort unveiling the 'lost black box' that was haunting her for so many years.
Highly recommend!
This is a stunning page turner....
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What an intimate sport
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Loved this book!
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