What We Inherit is available in hardcover, eBook, and as an audiobook narrated by the author.
Praise for What We Inherit:
“Part memoir, part investigative journalism, and completely engrossing, What We Inherit is not a book you’ll be forgetting anytime soon.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine (Selected as one of their must-read books of summer 2020)
"Everything about What We Inherit is unexpected and compelling…as breathtaking as any spy movie.”
“Rotondi deftly moves between the personal and the historical, and the book is a sensitive and searching examination of the ways loss and trauma live on through generations.”
—The Boston Globe
“A beautiful amalgam of memoir, travelogue, and investigative report that moves with the propulsive forward energy of a thriller. A haunting chronicle of loss and redemption.”
—Pulitzer Prize Winner Ron Chernow, author of Alexander Hamilton
“An inspiring and revealing story of one family’s pursuit of the truth about their son.”
—Kirkus Reviews STARRED Review
In the wake of her mother’s death, Jessica Pearce Rotondi uncovers boxes of letters, declassified CIA reports, and newspaper clippings that bring to light a family ghost: Her Uncle Jack, who disappeared during the CIA-led “Secret War” in Laos in 1972. The letters lead her across Southeast Asia in search of the truth that has eluded her family for decades. What she discovers takes her closer to the mother she lost and the mysteries of a secret war that changed the rules of engagement forever.
In 1943, 19-year-old Edwin Pearce jumps from a burning B-17 bomber over Germany. Missing in action for months, his parents finally learn he is a prisoner of war in Stalag 17. Ed survives nearly three years in prison camp and a march across the Alps before returning home.
Ed’s eldest son and namesake, Edwin “Jack,” follows his father into the Air Force. But on the night of March 29, 1972, Jack’s plane vanishes over the mountains bordering Vietnam and Ed’s past comes roaring into the present.
In 2009, Ed’s granddaughter, Jessica Pearce Rotondi, is grieving her mother’s death when she stumbles across declassified CIA documents, letters, and maps that reveal her family’s decades-long search for Jack. What We Inherit is Rotondi’s story of her own hunt for answers as she retraces her grandfather’s 1973 path across Southeast Asia in search of his son.
An excavation of intergenerational trauma on a personal and national scale, What We Inherit reveals the power of a father’s refusal to be silenced and a daughter’s quest to rediscover her voice in the wake of loss. As Rotondi nears the last known place Jack was seen alive, she grows closer to understanding the mystery that has haunted her family—and the destructive impact of a shadow war that left Laos the most heavily bombed country in the world.
More Praise for What We Inherit:
“Jessica Pearce Rotondi’s tragic family history has gifted her with one heck of a story to tell…But the true heart of this book lies in Rotondi’s quest to heal her family’s giant, open wound.”
—The San Francisco Chronicle
“A powerful, heartbreaking, and gut-wrenching first book.”
—Booklist
"A fascinating memoir about a woman's search for answers about a secret that has haunted her family for decades. After Jessica's uncle went missing in Laos in the ‘70s, the US government told his parents he'd died. His father, who was a POW in World War II, didn't trust them. After her mother's death, Jessica picks up the dormant investigation and searches for her uncle, uncovering personal and political secrets along the way.”
—Buzzfeed, Editor’s Pick
"Written like a spy novel and delivered like a whistleblower account of government deception, I felt like I was holding my breath until the very last page... This book shook my deepest assumptions about America."
—Sebastian Junger, Award-winning author of The Perfect Storm
"It’s both a stirring portrait of a family desperate for closure and a gripping account of the human toll of the U.S.’s military adventures."
—Fast Company
“This book will grip you from the first page and take you away. I felt transported by Jessica’s writing.”
—The Debutiful Podcast
"What We Inherit is a strikingly original debut, a moving saga of love and grief that shows how world events reshaped three generations of one American family. Jessica Pearce Rotondi discovers that courage exists not only on battlefields, but even in the most ordinary kitchens."
—Kate Bolick, Best-selling author of Spinster
“Recounting her family’s heart-wrenching search for an uncle who was shot down during the secret bombing of Laos, Jessica Pearce Rotondi’s What We Inherit is a triumph of investigative family history. A skillful and lyrical retelling of a mystery discovered largely upon her mother's death, this book is a reminder of how the suffering that remains after war, a secret war all the more so, can haunt us for generations.”
―Joel Whitney, author of Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World’s Best Writers and a founder of Guernica
“A journey from darkness into light via love.”
―Jennifer Pastiloff, author of On Being Human
"This fascinating memoir is at once about a moment in American history and the particular logics of grief. I learned about the after-effects of war, and about the power of grace. I learned about hope, and its transformation into peace. What We Inherit is a powerful book about how we make sense of unfathomable loss - and about the realization that all loss is unfathomable. In our current world, with so much war and pain, this is the book we need."
―Eva Hagberg, author of How to Be Loved: A Memoir of Life-Saving Friendship
“I devoured this book in one breathless gulp. A seamless blend of love, loss and legacy, this utterly gripping account of one woman's search to uncover a family mystery in the wake of her mother's death is at once heartbreaking and gorgeously hopeful. This is exactly the kind of compulsively-readable memoir I'm always hoping to find, but so rarely do."
―Claire Bidwell Smith, author of The Rules of Inheritance
Contact Jessica