The Memory Keeper's Daughter

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Synopsis

Families have secrets they hide even from themselves . . .

It should have been an ordinary birth, the start of an ordinary happy family. But the night Dr David Henry delivers his wife's twins is a night that will haunt five live for ever.

For though David's son is a healthy boy, his daughter has Down's syndrome. And, in a shocking act of betrayal whose consequences only time will reveal, he tells his wife their daughter died while secretly entrusting her care to a nurse.

As grief quietly tears apart David's family, so a little girl must make her own way in the world as best she can.

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• powerful and moving

  Reviewed by Marianne V. | see all reviews by Marianne V.

  19/06/2011

  The Memory Keepers Daughter is the first novel by Kim Edwards. The story is set in the 1960s and involves a doctor, David Henry, whose wife, Norah, goes into labour during a snowstorm. Unable to get to the hospital, he takes her to his surgery, where his nurse, Caroline Gil, assists with the birth. Norah delivers twins, a boy, Paul, and a girl, Phoebe: the boy is perfect, the girl is obviously mongoloid. Convinced that his wife will be unable to cope with their daughters disability, he tells Caroline to take Phoebe to a childrens home, and later tells his wife the baby did not survive. Caroline, unable to bring herself to leave Phoebe as instructed, takes her away to another town and decides to bring her up as her own daughter. The events that flow on from that decision made by Dr Henry, and the one by Caroline Gil, show how a persons life can truly hinge on one moment. This is a truly moving novel, heartbreaking in places, heartwarming in others. A thought-provoking page-turner. An excellent read.
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