Excerpt from Inheritance by Dani Shapiro, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

That they had looked at me' - their only child' - with the awareness that I had not come from the two of them but had been fathered by an anonymous medical student. There had to be another explanation' - one in which a nefarious doctor had duped them. I clung to the only story I could tolerate. A few days earlier, a wise friend, the Buddhist teacher Sylvia Boorstein, had told me that my present state reminded her of a particular illustration in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. At first glance, the illustration appears to be of a big green hat. But on closer examination, it becomes clear that a boa constrictor has swallowed an elephant. I was that snake. Choking on the elephant.

"Well, your mother had to know," Kramer said.

I wondered why she was so sure. She didn't strike me as the kind of person who would issue forceful opinions for no reason. I thought of my mother, her simmering fury. Her ownership of me. Her condescension toward my father. Was it possible? Could my mother have orchestrated my conception without my father's permission?

"The mother always knew," Kramer went on. "I've spoken to thousands of donor-conceived people. I've heard thousands of stories. I'm not saying it's impossible' - but I've never heard a story in which the mother didn't know."

Excerpted from Inheritanceby Dani Shapiro. Copyright © 2019 by Dani Shapiro. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.