Overview
- Bread of Angels was published Nov. 4 by Random House, with Smith recounting how DNA testing reshaped her family history.
- An initial 2012 test showed she and her sister Linda were half-siblings, and a later autosomal result pointed to a 100% Ashkenazi paternal line.
- With help from the daughter she placed for adoption at 20 and later reunited with, Smith identified her biological father as a man named Sidney.
- She learned Sidney died in 1965, discovering his identity too late to meet him or his widow.
- Smith says the finding delayed the book by about two years, and she protects her daughter’s privacy while choosing to include the truth in the memoir.