A #1 New York Times bestseller by Kim Edwards, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a brilliantly crafted novel of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love Kim Edwards’s stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964 in Lexington, Kentucky, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this beautifully told story that unfolds over a quarter of a century—in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that winter night long ago. A family drama, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter explores every mother's silent fear: What would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? It is also an astonishing tale of love and how the mysterious ties that hold a family together help us survive the heartache that occurs when long-buried secrets are finally uncovered.
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" Sad.... the whole book was sad! I kept waiting for some good, happy redeeming quality..... never came! I just cant handle a book that is sadness and pain the WHOLE time! "
— Amanda, 5/23/2011" This is truly the Seinfeld of books. One event is used as a pillar for an entire novel. Maybe this is the way secrets play out ... slowly, drawn-out, uninteresting. "
— Diana, 5/18/2011" Eh, you know. This was good but not great. Lovely but not backbreakingly beautiful. "
— Hannah, 5/18/2011" I didn't like this book that much. "
— Hannah, 5/17/2011" It took me a long time to read this book. Although it was an interesting story, I felt it moved very slowly, and I was disappointed with how long the climax of the plot took. "
— Sherry, 5/16/2011" certainly not great literature and maybe a little trite and the ending was contrived. okay summer read "
— Mary, 5/14/2011" Kept me going to the end. Felt a lot of loathing for the husband. "
— Robyn, 5/14/2011" This book was melodramatic beyond repair. I was intrigued by the premise but utterly bored by the actual story. It was painful to trudge all the way through it and I would not recommend it. "
— Michelle, 5/13/2011" Depressing story. I had already seen the movie, so I knew what to expect. What a terrible way to live your life. Terrible editing of the book - it drove me CRAZY! "
— Dawnia, 5/12/2011Kim Edwards has won numerous awards for her writing, including a Whiting Award, the Nelson Algren Award, and most recently the Kentucky Literary Award for fiction. She is the author of a collection of short stories, The Secrets of a Fire King, which was an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her stories and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Zoetrope, Anteaus, Story, and Paris Review and have received a National Magazine Award for Excellence in Fiction and a Pushcart Prize. A graduate of the Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop, she currently teaches writing at the University of Kentucky. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband and daughters.
Ilyana Kadushin was born in Miami and raised in the rural cornfields of Maryland. She attended the Tisch School of Arts in New York City and has performed in many theater productions. Kadushin wrote and performed a one woman multimedia musical called Devour the Apple. Her narration of In the Age of Love and Chocolate won an AudioFile Earphones Award.