The Lost Family Audiobook By Libby Copeland cover art

The Lost Family

How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Lost Family

By: Libby Copeland
Narrated by: Cindy Kay
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $16.11

Buy for $16.11

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

A deeply reported look at the rise of home genetic testing and the seismic shock it has had on individual lives

You swab your cheek or spit into a vial, then send it away to a lab somewhere. Weeks later you get a report that might tell you where your ancestors came from or if you carry certain genetic risks. Or the report could reveal a long-buried family secret and upend your entire sense of identity. Soon a lark becomes an obsession, an incessant desire to find answers to questions at the core of your being, like "Who am I?" and "Where did I come from?" Welcome to the age of home genetic testing.

In The Lost Family, journalist Libby Copeland investigates what happens when we embark on a vast social experiment with little understanding of the ramifications. Copeland explores the culture of genealogy buffs, the science of DNA, and the business of companies like Ancestry and 23andMe, all while tracing the story of one woman, her unusual results, and a relentless methodical drive for answers that becomes a thoroughly modern genetic detective story.

The Lost Family delves into the many lives that have been irrevocably changed by home DNA tests - a technology that represents the end of family secrets. There are the adoptees who've used the tests to find their birth parents; donor-conceived adults who suddenly discover they have more than 50 siblings; hundreds of thousands of Americans who discover their fathers aren't biologically related to them, a phenomenon so common it is known as a "non-paternity event", and individuals who are left to grapple with their conceptions of race and ethnicity when their true ancestral histories are discovered. Throughout these accounts, Copeland explores the impulse toward genetic essentialism and raises the question of how much our genes should get to tell us about who we are. With more than 30 million people having undergone home DNA testing, the answer to that question is more important than ever.

Gripping and masterfully told, The Lost Family is a spectacular book on a big, timely subject.

©2020 Libby Copeland. Published in 2020 by Abrams Press, an imprint of ABRAMS, Inc. All rights reserved (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
Genetics Physical Illness & Disease Social Sciences
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Lost Family

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    314
  • 4 Stars
    111
  • 3 Stars
    43
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    6
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    316
  • 4 Stars
    72
  • 3 Stars
    28
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    286
  • 4 Stars
    99
  • 3 Stars
    27
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    5

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful Insight

I’m a recent NPE and I loved hearing other stories about people whose lives were changed from DNA testing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting and timely read!

Really enjoyed this book! Libby Copeland did a nice job in explaining genetics and genealogy in a way that was simple, but also highlighted the nuances well. Really interesting read for anyone considering DNA testing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Catnip to genealogists

Well written, deeply engaging survey of the advances in genetics, DNA and the companies that make it easy for us to build our family trees. And if that is not intriguing enough, there is a family mystery woven through the book. Great read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderfully written!

Libby did a wonderful job of keeping the reader interested. She wove together detailed scientific information, revealing stories, and psychological issues that arise when DTC testing doesn’t go as planned.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fine

A lot more scientific information than I was expecting. The main story is split up so it was a little hard to follow listening to it, figuring out who's who. Even some of the smaller stories were hard to keep names straight. The narration was fine. Overall it was fine, I only chose it as a book to read with my mother who had her own DNA mystery.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting and enlightening

My initial, gut response to the ads for "Give Us Your DNA, and We'll Give You Your Heritage. It'll Be Fun!", was "No, No Thank You". I didnt have to think through all my objections to know it was just too intrusive. Reading this book just confirmed my instinct.
Let me say that I enjoy the study of ancestry and I am not worried about any big surprises, certainly not in my immediate family. I'm also not a conspiracy theorist, and I'm not anti government. But I do fugure my DNA, along with plenty of other info is no doubt already out there and accessible to the government or anyone else who really wants it. All the same, why hand it over on a silver platter?
All these sites gathering our DNA for fun at profit set off alarms in the back of my history loving head, and this book just confirmed many of the reasons why.
One thing I hadn't really thought of was that you arent just sharing your own unique info, but that of everyone related to you, even distant relatives, many you know nothing about. You might be intruding on their priivacy.
I can understand why others, especially those looking for answers, might feel differently. To them I say, read this book first, or just think through some of the possible consequences, then. if it still seems important to you, go for it.
But for me, it seems like privacy is going the way of good manners and respect for the social contract. I personally dont want to be a part of rushing them out the door.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

You may not be who you thought you were!

A great read and lots of information. Made me feel better at not being “more Italian”

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

5 stars in every way

Excellent and informative book. Excellent narration.
I will listen again.
The conclusion of the book provides a resource for updates to findings.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The perfect title

As someone who got unexpected results when just taking the test to find out more about my ancestry, Copeland explains so well the landmines that can explode when just taking the test for fun. I no longer freely encourage people to take a test without explaining the risks. The book is a great overview of genetics, how commercial tests came about, what can be " found out" and how to find out more with anecdotes throughput.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book

The narration is well done
The author does an excellent job describing the DNA process yet makes the info weave perfectly into the personal stories.
Well worth your time

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful