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The Memory Keeper's Daughter
by Kim Edwards

The Memory Keeper's Daughter Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Award-winning writer Kim Edwards's The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a brilliantly crafted, completely riveting family drama that explores every mother's silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child, and she grew up without you?

On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this beautifully told story that unfolds over a quarter of a century — in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by David Henry's fateful decision that long-ago winter night.

Rich, compulsively readable, and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper's Daughter captures the way life takes unexpected turns, and how the mysterious ties that hold a family together help us survive the heartache that hold a occurs when long-buried secrets burst into the open. It is an astonishing tale of redemptive love.

Review:

"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 Lexington, Ky., in 1964, and when young Norah Henry goes into labor, her husband, orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Henry, must deliver their babies himself, aided only by a nurse. Seeing his daughter's handicap, he instructs the nurse, Caroline Gill, to take her to a home and later tells Norah, who was drugged during labor, that their son Paul's twin died at birth. Instead of institutionalizing Phoebe, Caroline absconds with her to Pittsburgh. David's deception becomes the defining moment of the main characters' lives, and Phoebe's absence corrodes her birth family's core over the course of the next 25 years. David's undetected lie warps his marriage; he grapples with guilt; Norah mourns her lost child; and Paul not only deals with his parents' icy relationship but with his own yearnings for his sister as well. Though the impact of Phoebe's loss makes sense, Edwards's redundant handling of the trope robs it of credibility. This neatly structured story is a little too moist with compassion. Agent, Geri Thoma. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Edwards is a born novelist....Rich with psychological detail and the nuances of human connection." Chicago Tribune

Review:

"Unfolds from an absolutely gripping premise, drawing you deeply and irrevocably into the entangled lives of two families and the devastating secret that shaped them both. I loved this riveting story." Sue Monk Kidd

Review:

"Anyone would be struck by the extraordinary power and sympathy of The Memory Keeper's Daughter." The Washington Post

Review:

"A gripping novel, beautifully written. With amazing compassion, Kim Edwards explores the impact of a family secret that challenges the limits of love and redemption." Ursula Hegi

Review:

"Kim Edwards has created a tale of regret and redemption, of honest emotion, of characters haunted by their past. This is simply a beautiful book." Jodi Picoult

Review:

"Unfortunately, after its fast and sure-footed start, the story sags....First-novelist Edwards excels at celebrating a quiet wholesomeness but stumbles over her storyline." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"[A] moving story of two families bound by a secret that both eats away at relationships and eventually helps to create new ones." Booklist

Synopsis:

Kim Edwardss stunning family drama evokes the spirit of Sue Miller and Alice Sebold, articulating every mothers 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 Keepers Daughter is an astonishing tale of redemptive love. BACKCOVER: Edwards is a born novelist. . . . Rich with psychological detail and the nuances of human connection.

Chicago Tribune

Unfolds from an absolutely gripping premise, drawing you deeply and irrevocably into the entangled lives of two families and the devastating secret that shaped them both. I loved this riveting story.

Sue Monk Kidd

Anyone would be struck by the extraordinary power and sympathy of The Memory Keepers Daughter,

The Washington Post

Kim Edwards has written a novel so mesmerizing that I devoured it. . . . The Memory Keepers Daughter has it all.

Sena Jeter Naslund

Kim Edwards has created a tale of regret and redemption, of honest emotion, of characters haunted by their past. This is simply a beautiful book.

Jodi Picoult

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About the Author

Kim Edwards is the author of the short story collection The Secrets of a Fire King, which was an alternate for the 1998 PEN/Hemingway Award, and she has won both the Whiting Award and the Nelson Algren Award. A graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, she currently teaches writing at the University of Kentucky.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 12 comments:
bookluver, March 26, 2008 (view all comments by bookluver)
The Power of a Secret

I loved Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. I am anxious to read her next book. This book touched my heart. There wasn't one character that I could put out of my mind. This book proved to me we can't change our lives. We can only accept what is given to us. The husband tried to fix his family's world. All the while he was destroying himself and the lives of people who became involved with him. The book is powerful. There is always victory in hope. This is proven by Phoebe.
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hey jude, January 6, 2008 (view all comments by hey jude)
i really enjoyed this book....most of it. i began my read and raved about it to anyone who would listen, as luck would have it my mom and i began reading it at the same time, so i had a full-fledged chat buddy. as the story progressed however characters appeared and disappeared for no apparent reason, and then the ending came with a thud. (mom agreed) so read 3/4 of the book, and then put it down for something else.
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Deborah Fochler, August 22, 2007 (view all comments by Deborah Fochler)
A moving story but I wish the author had spent a little more time with the thoughts and emotions of the characters. Left me wanting to know more about them. But not a story you will soon forget. Very moving and a great story.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780143037149
Author:
Edwards, Kim
Publisher:
Penguin Books
Author:
Edwards, Kim
Subject:
General
Subject:
Parent and child
Subject:
Custody of children
Subject:
Suspense
Publication Date:
June 2006
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
401
Dimensions:
8.26 x 5.23in
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