'Bloodlines': Joe Manganiello Announces Deeply Personal Memoir on Healing and Ancestral Trauma

True Blood and Magic Mike star Joe Manganiello is preparing to release a deeply autobiographical book titled Bloodlines. According to the official synopsis, the memoir—set to be published on October 13 by Avid Reader Press (an imprint of Simon & Schuster)—will detail the actor's grueling battle for his health. This chapter of his life was "marked by multiple near-death experiences and medical crises that forced him outside the realm of traditional medicine and onto a remarkable global odyssey that unlocked the secrets of his ancestry, inherited trauma, and the deep history we carry inside us."

A Seven-Year Battle for Survival

It all began with what Manganiello describes as a "cascade of autoimmune diseases." The illness attacked his skin, thyroid, eyes, lungs, and digestive system, plunging the actor into a seven-year battle for his life.

This period was characterized by "chronic pain, a life-saving organ amputation, an existential crisis, and a prolonged fight for survival for which modern doctors had no answers or explanations," the synopsis reads.

Faced with the limitations of conventional medicine, Manganiello found an unorthodox path to recovery. The synopsis explains: "His guides became shamans, pagan rituals, ancient myths, long-lost family archives, and the rebirth of his own spirituality."

During his quest, the actor dove deep into his family tree and discovered that his ancestors' lives had been shattered by violence, forced displacement, and chronic illness. Notably, a couple of years ago, Manganiello discovered his Armenian heritage—specifically that his maternal great-grandmother was an Armenian Genocide survivor of 1915.

"This was the most brutal, difficult time in my life, which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, but at the same time, it became my greatest adventure," the actor said in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE. "I hope my experience offers readers hope that answers and healing are waiting on the other side of whatever they are fighting. Writing this book gave me an invaluable gift—perspective. I realized that my suffering was a cocoon from which I emerged permanently changed."

More Than Just a Medical Journey

The publisher describes Bloodlines as a "deeply personal and emotionally sweeping work." The book tackles themes of illness, legacy, masculinity, faith, ambition, and the identities we construct just to survive. It is far more than a typical medical memoir; it is a raw and profound look at what happens when the life you have so carefully built can no longer hold the truth of what you carry inside.

Bloodlines hits bookshelves on October 13 and is currently available for pre-order.