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The Memory Keeper's Daughter

By Kim Edwards

(66)

| Others | 9780143038139

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Book Description

From Publishers Weekly
Edwards's assured but schematic debut novel (after her collection, The Secrets of a Fire King) hinges on the birth of fraternal twins, a healthy boy and a girl with Down syndrome, resulting in the father's disavowal of his newborn daughter. A snowstorm immobilizes LexingtonContinue

7 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

Kim Edwards’s stunning family drama evokes the spirit of Sue Miller and Alice Sebold, articulating every mother’s silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he immediately recognizes tha ... (continue)

Kim Edwards’s stunning family drama evokes the spirit of Sue Miller and Alice Sebold, articulating every mother’s silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he immediately recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and to keep her birth a secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is an astonishing tale of redemptive love.

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― meganzing said on Jul 3, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

*** This comment contains spoilers! ***

Amazing story of a woman's decision to rise her boss's disabled daughter (twin son was healthy) after he gave her the infant to drop off at an institution because the baby had Downs' Syndrome. Throughout the years she wrote to him about the progress of the child and he would send her money. It's a ... (continue)

Amazing story of a woman's decision to rise her boss's disabled daughter (twin son was healthy) after he gave her the infant to drop off at an institution because the baby had Downs' Syndrome. Throughout the years she wrote to him about the progress of the child and he would send her money. It's a sad and happy story. And incredibly written.

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― SaraA said on May 19, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

Pretty bleah. The author was way too wordy and included an extreme amount of detail that no one actually could ever care about. The characters all seemed dull and unreal. I was never interested in any of them. Plot line was double-dull. It's not 1 star, because I finished it without too much pa ... (continue)

Pretty bleah. The author was way too wordy and included an extreme amount of detail that no one actually could ever care about. The characters all seemed dull and unreal. I was never interested in any of them. Plot line was double-dull. It's not 1 star, because I finished it without too much pain, but there was a night where I had to just put it down and read something else instead because I couldn't stand it any more for a while.

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― Deanna Kyre said on May 1, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Heartbreaking but Beautiful

I loved this book although it broke my heart. The story is beautifully written but so heartwrenching. It was hard responding to David after what he did but little by little I began to see that he was truly suffering. In the end, he made amends in his way. I disliked Norah until the last few chap ... (continue)

I loved this book although it broke my heart. The story is beautifully written but so heartwrenching. It was hard responding to David after what he did but little by little I began to see that he was truly suffering. In the end, he made amends in his way. I disliked Norah until the last few chapters of the book when I saw exactly what she went through as a result of David. I will definitely recommend this to my book club friends.

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― Bibliophile said on Nov 26, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

A memorable book that's well written. The characters are so real that you can't help identifying with them. I found myself wondering what I would've done in the father's circumstances (I hope I would've done the right thing.), and in the nurse's circumstances. I recommend this one.

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― Miraclesmommadesigns said on Oct 31, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

Always love a book which makes me imagine what if that was me and what would I have done.

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― Eperce said on Mar 9, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback