The Memory Keeper's Daughter

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

by: Kim Edwards

Very hard beginning. I complained to Candice and Tatia about the sad, horrid start. I kept reading and really liked all the conflict that the author put out there.

A doctor's wife, suddenly goes into labor, terrible storm. The doctor has to deliver the baby himself with the help of his nurse. One baby born, boy, fine. Suddenly, another baby is coming - a girl. The girl has Downs Syndrome. What to do? The year is 1964. The doctor had a sister with Downs Syndrome. She died at 12 breaking his mother's heart. He wanted to save his wife, so while she slept off the effects of the gas, he had his nurse take the baby to a place that kept children like that.

Heart wrenching! What happens? Does the wife remember or know? How does the family survive? How do they all deal with their loss? Ok, I'll tell you - the husband tells the wife that the baby dies! She is so sad. They try to live on. She gives her husband a camera that is called a "Memory Keeper". He loves the new camera and the hobby. He never tells his wife about the baby. The nurse never gave the baby to that home. She couldn't. She took the baby away, moved and raised the baby on her own. The lies in the doctor's family were devastating to them all.

It was an interesting book...the decisions we make...how they affect so many people.

I liked it! I would read this author again.

If you read this book, comment, let's talk!!