A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery - Softcover

Ingrassia, Lawrence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250837235 ISBN 13: 9781250837233

Publisher: Holt Paperbacks, 2025

Synopsis

Nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction

Named a best book of the year by Amazon, NPR, and Kirkus

Weaving his own moving family story with a sweeping history of cancer research, Lawrence Ingrassia delivers an intimate, gripping tale that sits at the intersection of memoir and medical thriller

Ingrassia lost his mother, two sisters, brother, and nephew to cancer--different cancers developing at different points throughout their lives. And while highly unusual, his family is not the only one to wonder whether their heartbreak is the result of unbelievable bad luck, or if there might be another explanation.

Through meticulous research and riveting storytelling, Ingrassia takes us from the 1960s--when Dr. Frederick Pei Li and Dr. Joseph Fraumeni Jr. first met, not yet knowing that they would help make a groundbreaking discovery that would affect cancer patients for decades to come--to present day, as Ingrassia and countless others continue to unpack and build upon Li and Fraumeni's initial discoveries, and to understand what this means for their families.

In the face of seemingly unbearable loss, Ingrassia holds onto hope. He urges us to "fight like Charlie," his nephew who battled cancer his entire life starting with a rare tumor in his cheek at the age of two--and to look toward the future, as gene sequencing, screening protocols, CRISPR gene editing, and other developing technologies may continue to extend lifespans and perhaps, one day, even offer cures.

About this title

About the Author

Lawrence Ingrassia is a former business and economics editor and deputy managing editor at the New York Times, having previously spent twenty-five years at the Wall Street Journal, as Boston bureau chief, London bureau chief, money and investing editor, and assistant managing editor. He also served as managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. The coverage he directed won five Pulitzer Prizes as well as Gerald Loeb Awards and George Polk Awards. His first book, Billion Dollar Brand Club, chronicles the rise of popular direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands and was shortlisted for several best business book awards for 2020. His book, A Fatal Inheritance, narrates the tale of a team of dedicated researchers who solved the medical mystery behind seemingly unrelated cancers devastating his and other families. He lives in the Seattle area.

Edition details

• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1250837235
• ISBN 13: 9781250837233
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320