The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Kim Edwards' bestselling book takes a much different direction than what I had first thought by reading the initial chapter. The premise is that a doctor, David, and his pregnant wife, Norah, are on their way to the hospital during a snow storm to deliver their first child. They don't make it and he delivers the child in a local doctor's office. Unbeknownst to her a second child, a twin, is delivered but has Down's syndrome. David asks the nurse assisting the delivery to quietly take the child to an institution. What happens to this child and to the relationships resulting from the concealment are what drives the remainder of the book. Edwards weaves several story lines in the years that follow and takes some suprising turns along the way. The question you will keep asking, of course, is: When and how will Norah find out about this child? I thought the book could have been edited down a bit as it dragged some in the middle. All and all, however, it was engaging and makes a great book discussion choice judging by its popularity with book groups.