Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, by Kim Edwards

This stunning and heart-rending novel begins on a winter’s night in 1964.  David and Norah, married barely a year and very deeply in love are expecting their first child.  Because of a blizzard, David is forced to take charge of the delivery, and immediately after the birth of a baby boy, he is shocked to see a twin sister.  On seeing her, he tells his wife that the twin was very tiny and was dead at birth.

Norah, although pleased with their first-born son and loves and trusts her husband, somehow suspects that he has not told her the truth, as she was not allowed to see the tiny twin..  She lavishes all her love and attention on their son, but throughout the years she is haunted and saddened by the thought of the missing daughter and of a possible deception. Her trust in the husband she still loves has been badly shaken.

Gradually both Norah and David become totally absorbed in their own careers and hobbies and friends, and they slowly drift apart.  Their family secrets and mutual coldness also affects their son, who shares in their pain.  The story has a bitter-sweet ending, with a touch of redemptive love.  It is masterfully written, and I know you would enjoy it.

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