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The Foundling cover art

The Foundling

By: Paul Joseph Fronczak,Alex Tresniowski
Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
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Summary

The Foundling tells the incredible and inspiring true story of Paul Fronczak, a man who recently discovered via a DNA test that he was not who he thought he was - and set out to solve two 50-year-old mysteries at once. Along the way he upturned the genealogy industry, unearthed his family's deepest secrets, and broke open the second longest cold case in US history, all in a desperate bid to find out who he really is.

In 1964 a woman pretending to be a nurse kidnapped an infant boy named Paul Fronczak from a Chicago hospital.

Two years later police found a boy abandoned outside a variety store in New Jersey. The FBI tracked down Dora Fronczak, the kidnapped infant's mother, and she identified the abandoned boy as her son. The family spent the next 50 years believing they were whole again - but Paul was always unsure about his true identity.

Then, four years ago - spurred on by the birth of his first child, Emma Faith - Paul took a DNA test. The test revealed definitively that he was not Paul Fronczak. From that moment on, Paul has been on a tireless mission to find the man whose life he's been living - and to discover who abandoned him and why.

This is the story of Paul's heart-wrenching and tortuous journey to solve both mysteries and finally learn the truth about his identity.

The Foundling tells the incredible and inspiring true story of Paul Fronczak, a man who recently discovered via a DNA test that he was not who he thought he was - and set out to solve two 50-year-old mysteries at once. Along the way he upturned the genealogy industry, unearthed his family's deepest secrets, and broke open the second longest cold case in US history, all in a desperate bid to find out who he really is.

In 1964 a woman pretending to be a nurse kidnapped an infant boy named Paul Fronczak from a Chicago hospital.

Two years later police found a boy abandoned outside a variety store in New Jersey. The FBI tracked down Dora Fronczak, the kidnapped infant's mother, and she identified the abandoned boy as her son. The family spent the next 50 years believing they were whole again - but Paul was always unsure about his true identity.

Then, four years ago - spurred on by the birth of his first child, Emma Faith - Paul took a DNA test. The test revealed definitively that he was not Paul Fronczak. From that moment on, Paul has been on a tireless mission to find the man whose life he's been living - and to discover who abandoned him and why.

This is the story of Paul's heart-wrenching and tortuous journey to solve both mysteries and finally learn the truth about his identity.

The Foundling is a touching and inspiring story about a child lost and faith found, about the permanence of families and the bloodlines that define you, and about the emotional toll of both losing your identity and rediscovering who you truly are.

©2017 Paul Joseph Fronczak and Alex Tresniowski (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

What listeners say about The Foundling

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fascinating but long winded

it was a very interesting story with lots of facts and depth. but it did go on a bit in the middle. also, it's a little disappointing how it ended...but that is real life after all.

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  • 04-10-19

Great story

Amazing story but the narrator was terrible. Honestly, he should only be reading children's or fictional stories. It was really not good.

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Great book

Listen in my car and kept on making excuses to go for s drive like a book you can’t put down- feel I need to know more

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    3 out of 5 stars

Very intriguing story told in way too much detail... became very tedious... and extremely poor narration... robotic and monotone

I was really looking forward to hearing it, having heard it being discussed on the radio, but was very relieved when I got to the end.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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too wordy

too descriptive of irrelevants facts like who was sitting where while they drank coffee. very complicated topic with regard to DNA strands etc.

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a lost family

as a family historian, i realise the difficulties and frustrations of brick walls. the researchers involved did a fabulous job. at times the story was a little long winded but kept me listening

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interesting book

interesting read, but agree with other comments it's quite drawn out and lengthy in a lot of places.

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Interestimg but very drawn out in parts

I enjoyed this book and it was fascinating but not the ending I hoped for ( as I'm sure was the same for the writer!). I found alot of the details unnecessary to the story and difficult to follow the family trees in your head while listening to audible. My heart goes out to all.rhe people in the world in this situation. Not knowing where they came from.

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Wow, Just Wow.

What a sad world we live in, this is inspiring for other foundlings, adopted or Fostered children.
I cried when baby Paul was kidnapped and when Jack was just abandand. I have been doing my family tree since 1989, Its so hard at times, a giant puzzle. I so want to know what happened to Paul and Jill, it's just heartbreaking. I want to know if there is more to come?

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Persistence needed

This is a fascinating story but I struggled to finish it as the detail got too intense.

I wanted to find out what happened to him but got bored with his self absorption and kept skipping forward from about chapter 19.

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