A Life Half Told

Unraveling my life's story through DNA

By: William Aperance, Courtney Aperance

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

What if you’re the lucky one?
At sixty-five years old, William Aperance was proud of the life he’d built: a comfortable home in
upstate New York, a successful career managing country clubs, and, most importantly, a happy
family. Despite growing up in poverty and neglect, with a sense that he never quite belonged,
William and his wife, Kim, had created a loving home for their three children.
But with retirement on the horizon, one Christmas gift challenged everything. The results from
the DNA kit under the tree rocked the foundations of his identity, and everything he thought he
knew growing up in his troubled family. Bewildered, he searched for the truth of his paternity.
Would this genetic revelation break his family further apart, like so many others?
With his daughter Courtney, William has woven together the threads of his family story in a
testament to resilience. Combining memories from his chaotic upbringing with the navigation
decades later of hidden truths and unanswered questions, he grapples with the complexities of
unanswered questions, forging new bonds, and embracing family.
A Life Half Told is an intimate exploration of identity, love, and the surprising discovery that it’s
never too late for healing and acceptance.

Fascinating!

William Aperance allows us to see into his mind and heart as he shares with us the shock, anxiety, doubt, and finally love and forgiveness that came with finding out through a gifted DNA test that his family was not his only family.

It's fascinating as he describes his mental struggles while skillfully playing ancestor detective, trying to find out why his DNA results don't match the rest of his siblings. Already a father of three children, he grapples with this revelation, debating whether he wants to disturb the comfortable life he's created. In the end, he pushes forward to discover the truth and a new loving family in the process.

This memoir is a multi-dimensional, honest look at his search, taking us deep into his painful past so we gain a perspective that helps us understand all the mental bantering that goes on in his head each step of his journey. In the end, we see the rewards of his courage to find the truth.

I noticed this audiobook was tagged as using a digitized voice narrator. I'm familiar with modern-day digital voices, so it didn't dissuade me from listening. The narration sounds like the natural voice of an author reading his book. Every so often there were slight, imperfections in voice inflections that didn't distract from the great story being told. I hope listeners don't let this type of narration discourage them from downloading this wonderful memoir.