I just finished The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, by Kim Edwards. A doctor, unable to get his wife to a hospital during a very bad snow storm ends up delivering his own twins. The doctor realizes that one twin has Downs and the other baby appears to be normal. He gives the baby to his nurse so she can take the child to a “home” but the nurse decides (last minute) to raise the child as her own. The doctor’s wife is told that the child died after birth.

The rest of the story deals with secret that the father holds, and how that secret affects his family, as well as the nurse that ends up raising his daughter. It’s a sad story about grief and loss and although some of it is written in a very touching way, many of the characters seem too horrible, or too good. I watched the TV version of this on Lifetime after finishing the book and the TV version did a much better job of portraying pain and loss within the characters. Also, the nurse is played by Emily Watson and she is always so fantastic to watch.

Overall, it was an interesting premise but the book fell a bit short for me.

Ti