The Memory Keeper's Daughter: A Novel

By: Kim Edwards   List Price: $15.00 Amazon Price: $1.89 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days   Go to Amazon

Book Description:

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.

Product Details:

• Amazon Sales Rank: 8537
• Date Published: 2006-05-30
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Customer Reviews

Amazing book that left me deeply moved

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It is a simple story of mistakes and cover-ups that haunt a family for a lifetime. The quality of writing is stellar. The scenes and emotions are so vivid that I felt that I was almost there as this family's story unfolded. I felt like I was made to see the story of this family's pain through many different prisms and lenses (just like in real families) and each one of those views left an imprint inside me and moved me. It is a truly remarkable book, and I will remember it for a long time to come. I read the book over a brutal 40 hour journey (many delays and flight cancellations) but I remained largely oblivious to it all. The book had transported me to another world.... I will read everything Kim Edwards writes! Looking forward to the next book!

Too Fictional to Create Emotional Connection

This book was just okay.
I read it, thinking "I read this already", then quickly realized I watched this aweful movie on Lifetime with my mother. So from that point on I really did not like this book.

The story is very sad yet too unbelievable to create any emotional connection to the characters in the story.
Towards the end of the book I grew to dislike most of the adults involved in the story.

Heres a quick glimpse at this ridiculous plot line:
A doctor's wife goes into labor during a snow storm.
He has to deliver the baby.
The doctor quickly realizes, there is not 1 but 2 babies.
2nd baby is not okay and sick mentally.
He quickly hides her, gives her to his nurse to get rid of.
The wife is told the baby dies .
She lives wondering what could be.
Nurse lives and raises sick baby on her own.
Blah Blah
Husband has huge guilt because of his hideous secret and it figuratively eats him up inside.
And, well if you want to know the rest read the book, but I do not reccommend
I would not reccommend this book to anyone.

Too painful for parent of child with DS

As the parent of a child with Down Syndrome, I avoided this book for years. My own journey in grieving, accepting and loving my daughter was too emotional to introduce the emotions of these fictional characters as well. Finally, I did read it to try and share my feelings of conflict over parenting this special child with other parents. This beautifully written and very real book should be read by everyone EXCEPT the parent of a child with DS or other genetic birth disorder. The outrage I felt at the father's actions in rejecting his own child were so strong that they were not overcome by the love and attention the daughter received by her adoptive mother, as many readers have said. The deceipt in this book makes for a good story but hits too close to home to bear.

NOT BAD, NOT BAD AT ALL HOWEVER....

When I first saw this book, I was attracted to its cover. I had NO idea what the story was about or the plot but it sounded to be such a good book and therefore I decided to buy it.

I will have to say that after reading it I didn't fully regret reading this book, not at all! It was an interesting book since I rarely read books that talk about down syndrome, this book opened up my eyes about the disease and stimulated my curiosity to learn more about its symptoms and what it does to the lives of children.

I really liked the way this book is written, I liked the style of it, I liked the way the characters are brought out it seemed they were realistic not fabricated and unreal like some novels. However this book is dramatic. It talks about social issues, it talks about children, unhappy marriages, divorce and of curse Dawn Syndrome.

Some may not like the book because of its over dramatic events & I don't blame them if you don't like drama then you won't like this book. If your looking to read something adventurous and thrilling this book is not the one. It simply talks about social issues that are found in society and about family and human relationships.

Although I liked this book a lot, the only thing I didn't like is the ending. If the ending was different I would've enjoyed this book a lot more. I'm not saying that it must be a happy ending but at least I think it could've done differently.

Otherwise good book!

Heck Naw

Most of the other reviewers have already said what I think about this long, drawn-out, never-ending story that will put you to sleep after the first couple of chapters. Seriously, it's not even that much of a story since the book is about a fourth narrative and three fourths bizarre descriptions of completely unimportant things ("...she was looking at expensive stockings as dark as pig's blood.."). But I don't want to get too into what I think about her writing style because everyone else, especially that review called "Life Is Too Short to Read Books Like This", totally nailed my thoughts. So the only reason I wrote this is to say that I kind of think that Kim Edwards wrote the "Read This, read this, read this!" review. Actually, I'm almost totally sure.

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