Thursday, August 07, 2008

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

The Memory Keeper's Daughter was pretty good. Tragically sad, but good. A doctor delivers his own babies - twins - at his office during a snowstorm in the 1960s. One baby has Down syndrome, and the doctor instructs the nurse to take the baby to an institution. This decision doesn't come out of nowhere - he had a sister with a heart condition who died young and he can't bear the thought of what a disabled child would do to his wife. When his wife wakes up from the anesthesia, he tells her the baby died. The nurse, however, can't bear to leave the baby at the institution and takes off with her, raising her as her own daughter. From there the story takes off, following the years as the two families deal with the consequences of that one choice the father made.

Recommended.