"In this unputdownable story of nature, nurture, and coming to terms with one's true inheritance, the author, introducing her deeply dysfunctional yet fiercely loving family that is anything but "normal," reveals how a colorful cast of characters were thrown together by chance and DNA"--

Describes the recruitment of Nobel Prize winners and other accomplished men as donors to a sperm bank, whose mission was to breed brilliant scientists and leaders, profiling both the donors and the children fathered through the sperm bank.

"Once shrouded in secrecy, the modern family, built with the assistance of gamete (egg or sperm) donation, is coming out of the shadows. As more people see friends, family members and celebrities use donor conception to build their families, the process has become much more mainstream and accepted. Donor sperm programs and egg banks have grown enormously in the past decade and the news is full of politicians, athletes and entertainers like Elton John,...