New York Times bestselling author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs undergoes a hilarious, heartfelt quest to understand what constitutes family where it begins and how far it goes and attempts to untangle the true meaning of the Family of Humankind . Jacobs has received some strange emails over the years, but this note was perhaps the strangest- You don 't know me, but I 'm your eighth cousin. And we have over 80,000 relatives of yours in our database . So began a three-year adventure to build the biggest family tree in history. Jacobs 's journey would take him to all seven continents. He drank beer with a US president and coffee with Harry Potter, found himself singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and unearthed genetic links to Hollywood actresses and real-life scoundrels.

After all, we can choose our friends, but not our family.