Jeff Wheelwright

Drawing on the family history of a young Hispano woman in Colorado, Wheelwright discusses the BRCA1 mutation, and how the history of Sephardic Jews likely led to its appearance in families unaware of their descent from the conversos, and also how some whose ancestors underwent forced conversion to Catholicism later themselves chose to become Jehovah's Witnesses. Fascinating stuff.

Though this type of thing is right up my boyfriend's alley, I personally know very little about genetics and how genes are expressed and how they are traceable, apart from what I've gleaned from examining my own family history. I enjoyed this book because it was able to bring a historical and personal perspective to the science of genetics, tracing a particular genetic mutation through one woman's family, through her family history and the events which perpetuated her ancestors to migrate. I show more felt that the author did a good job blending the different topics together, making an interesting and readable book out of them, although I am not sure how much the science was simplified for a general audience. show less

A story about the migration of peoples and the proliferation of their genes. Though we each have a certain story that informs our ethnic and racial backgrounds, our DNA tells another story - one that reaches much farther back than we might imagine. This book focuses in on one particular family of Hispanic people living in the scrub land of New Mexico. Their family has a varied racial tapestry, but the high incidence of deadly breast cancer has brought them to the attention of genetic show more counselors. It seems their family carries a rare error in their DNA that can be traced back to an unknown Jewish heritage.

The author explains the progression and movement of this gene - often carried by unknowing hosts from Spain to America to a remote settlement in the West where it would continue to flourish in isolation. Though the genetic sciences are still very young, there is much now we can know about our history and our potential for certain inheritable diseases. show less

I'm fascinated by this topic, but I thought this book could have done so much more. First of all, there is an extensive amount of flowery landscape and historical descriptions that are good at first but quickly become far, far too lengthy. Second, I thought there was not enough science. Despite talking about heritability, there is no family tree for the Medinas that would show how frequently the mutation (or carrier status) occurred. Since there are so many relatives and many are related to show more each other in two ways, it was hard to keep this straight. show less