Award-winning writer Kim Edwards's The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a brilliantly crafted family drama that explores every mother's silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you?The book opens with a pivotal moment, one that changes the lives of all its characters forever. Forced to deliver his own twins in a snow storm, Dr. David Henry sees at once that while his son is healthy, his daughter has Down syndrome. He makes a split second decision to send his daughter to an institution; meaning to spare his wife what he imagines will be years of grief, he tells her that their daughter died. His nurse can’t leave the infant, however. Instead, she flees with her to Pittsburgh, where she raises the girl as her own.
With the ethical dilemma and family drama at its heart, “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” is appealing to readers who want a rich and deeply moving page turner and something to discuss in their reading groups. It captures the way life takes unexpected turns and how the mysterious ties that hold a family together help us survive the heartache that occurs when long-buried secrets burst into the open. It is an astonishing tale of redemptive love.
