Monday, 3 November 2008

My Thoughts: The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards


This was one of those must read books of last year which I just never got around to at the time. As I was visiting my Mum over the weekend, I knew I needed something light and easy so I picked up this, not remembering that it would be sad.

The story is about 2 families with a shared secret connection. One family have twins, when the father delivers the baby one of the babies has Downs Syndrome, this is 1964 and he thinks the best thing for her is to go to a home. He sends her off with a nurse, telling his wife, the babies mother that the baby had died. The nurse feels unable to abandon the baby in the home and takes her home raising her as his own.

The lies and secrets go on for years, the marriage has a huge crack in it created by the lost daughter. In the other family their is the struggle for education and for security.

As with all secrets, you spend the whole time waiting for the truth to come out.

This was a good read, and had me weeping all Sunday afternoon.
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1 comment:

Sandra said...

I really liked this story too. Nice to see something reviewed that's been around for a while. There are so many very good novels out there waiting to be found. I reviewed The Memory Keeper's Daughter recently here:

http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/2008/10/memory-keepers-daughter-by-kim-edwards.html