One moment. All it takes is one moment, one phrase, one lie, one decision, to change the entire life course of a family forever. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards is a heart-wrenching yet beautiful story that follows a family after one stormy night changes their lives.
The story begins on a blistery night in March of 1964. There is a stunning stillness caused by a rare Kentucky storm that covers the city in a blanket of white snow. Seemly happy newlywed couple Dr. David and Norah Asher Henry are settling in for the night. The stillness of the city is suddenly shattered when Mrs. Henry goes into labor two weeks premature.
From that moment everything is pushed into motion, as Dr. Henry “races,” while still stopping at every street light, through the snow-covered roads to get his wife to his office, where his partner Dr. Bentley will deliver the Henry’s first child.
In a bizarre change of plans Dr. Henry is forced to deliver his own child with the help of his nurse, the piercing blue eyed Caroline Gill. Working with calm methodic hands, Dr. Henry delivers his beautiful, seemly perfect son, Paul.
Without warning a series of contractions overcomes Mrs. Henry and Dr. Henry is forced to return his attention on his lovely wife.
Within seconds his life is imminently altered when a tiny, black hair, little girl unexpectedly falls into his hands. The features of his newborn daughter, Phoebe, are what his college professor’s called “a textbook definition” of Down Syndrome. The sight of his daughter awakens old wounds from his childhood, flooding his memory with images of his little sister June.
Thinking he would be saving his family, and unknowingly himself, from unbearable grief, Dr. Henry writes down the address of a “well-received” institution on a napkin. He turns to Caroline and asks her to take his daughter to the institution in the morning. Caroline, astonished, agrees, thinking he is sure to change his mind.
She leaves, and thus begins the separation of the lives of David, Norah, and Paul and the lives of Caroline and Phoebe.
When Norah Henry awakens, Dr. Henry is forced to tell his wife what happened to their little daughter, the twin of their perfect little boy. His response would unknowing become a constant barrier between him and his family and a missing piece in all their hearts.
The story, broken up by years and point of view, follows the continuation of the life of the Henry family and Nurse Caroline Gill, as the effects of the decisions made on that winter night alters each of the characters, their paths, and the inner workings of their personalities.
Well-written and with an amazing attention to detail, characterization, and metaphoric technique, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a beautiful novel that will stir the emotions of each reader and leave them turning the page at ease. Artfully transcribed with elegant language, complex intertwining of characters, and one big secret Edwards draws in her readers within the first chapter; breaking and fixing the hearts of her audience along the way.
The book was converted into a Lifetime television movie by the same name that premiered on April 12, 2008. The made-for-television movie stared Dermont Mulroney, Gretchen Mol, and Emily Watson as David, Norah, and Caroline. The teenage character of Phoebe is portrayed by Krystal Hope Nausbaum, an incredible young actress with down syndrome.
For more information on Kim Edwards, her other published work, or to purchase the epic family and love story of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter please visit http://kimedwardsbooks.com.