We specialize in hard to find items
All Categories
The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are
Share Tweet
*Price and Stocks may change without prior notice
*Packaging of actual item may differ from photo shown
- Electrical items MAY be 110 volts.
- 7 Day Return Policy
- All products are genuine and original
About The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We
Product Description 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 fifty 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 thirty 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. Review “Before You Spit in That Vial, Read This Book.” -- New York Times “[ The Lost Family] wrestles with some of the biggest questions in life: Who are we? What is family? Are we defined by nature, nurture or both?” -- The Washington Post “A fascinating account of lives dramatically affected by genetic sleuthing.” -- The Wall Street Journal “Copeland takes readers inside America’s first DNA testing lab dedicated to genealogy, to Salt Lake City’s Family History Library—the largest genealogical research facility in the world—and into the living rooms of dozens of people whose lives have been turned upside down due to the results of a recreational DNA test. It is at once a hard look at the forces behind a historical mass reckoning that is happening all across America, and an intimate portrait of the people living it.“ -- Wired.com “A fascinating deep dive into the massively popular world of direct-to-consumer DNA testing.” -- Associated Press “Page-Turner.” -- Alison Stewart ― WNYC’s All Of It “Journalist Libby Copeland’s deep dive into the family secrets uncovered and privacy questions untested will blow your mind.” -- OZY.com “ The Lost Family is a fascinating exploration of the mysteries ignited by DNA genealogy testing—from the intensely personal and concrete to the existential and unsolvable. In the world Copeland's 'seekers' are exploring, 'Who am I?' becomes a mystery more intricate and more crucial than any novel's 'Whodunit?' Copeland deftly weaves toge ther individual stories, technical explanations and sociological discussion to make a book that's both gripping and deeply thought-provoking.” -- Tana French ― New York Times bestselling author of the Dublin Murder Squad series and The Witch Elm “So many families have been touched—and will continue to be touched—by the secrets unearthed by home genetic testing. We are in an epidemic with f
