The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

This debut novel revolves around one unfortunate choice. Set in 1964 in Kentucky and advancing through several decades of change, "The Memory Keeper’s Daughter" is a tale of two sets of people tied by the lie of one man.

The story begins during a snowstorm as Dr. David Henry is driving his wife to the hospital for the birth of their first child. Because of treacherous roads, he decides to stop at his clinic and there, with the help of his nurse, Caroline Gill, he safely delivers their son, Paul. However, unexpectedly, his wife, Norah, delivers a second child, Paul’s twin sister, Phoebe, who is born with Down’s Syndrome. Dr. David is a good, but secretive man. He has shared his difficult past with no one, not even his wife. The pain of the past and the difficult circumstances of the present collide to create a crisis. He decides to spare his wife Norah the grief of knowing about their daughter, and hands the baby to his nurse Caroline to be taken to a home. There is no way David can anticipate that his actions will destroy the very things he wishes to protect as he turns to his wife and tells her, “our little daughter died as she was born.”

Dr. Henry’s choice becomes a major turning point in all their lives. Nurse Caroline is horrified by the home where she was to deliver baby Phoebe and decides to raise the little girl as her own. She, therefore, leaves Kentucky and begins a new life with a baby daughter. From that moment, two families begin their new, and separate lives. David and Norah’s lives turn for the worst as David’s lies create an invisible wall around him, and he and Norah drift apart. The “death” of Phoebe destroys his marriage and, Paul, his son, becomes a troubled teen.

Norah, haunted by the daughter she lost, takes on an all-consuming career and seeks intimacy that has been lost. Paul feels as though he is a disappointment to his father and seeks to release his hurt and anger through music. David, tormented by his secret, looks through the lens of his camera, the “Memory Keeper,” and tries to make sense of his life through the images he captures.

"The Memory Keeper’s Daughter" shows life as a moving image, one that cannot be frozen, altered, or controlled. Time presses us forward. This book explores the mysteries of grief and love, and the power of the truth to shatter and to heal.

(by Anne Frame, Guest Columnist)