My Sister's Keeper
Jodi Picoult’s novel examines the question of whether a younger daughter should have a choice in donating parts of her body to her older sister who is suffering from leukemia. Anna, the youngest sibling in the family, was conceived because the parents were assured that a "designer baby" would have matching blood with Kate, her ailing sister.
During Anna’s childhood, she was operated on many times to assure Kate’s survival. Anna was aware of why she was brought into the world: "They had me so I could save Kate." But finally at the age of thirteen, Anna questioned being used as a continual donor and so took her case to an attorney. The story is based on the court trial that followed, pitting young Anna against her parents and her sister Kate.
Campbell Alexander is the attorney who, always in the company of his "service dog", takes Anna’s case without charge. Then, by accident, an old girlfriend is assigned to be his assistant. Their bittersweet reunion creates the main romantic conflict of the story.
Jesse, Anna and Kate’s older brother, feels left-out, since his parents’ attention is continually focused on trips to the hospital with his two sisters. Even the trouble he gets into doesn’t draw much attention, except from his father, who as a captain in the local fire department, can detect arson.
The author changes the narrator of each chapter in the book, and except for Kate, all of the characters get to speak for themselves. Anna, in one chapter, relates what Kate once revealed to her about dying from leukemia. Kate was ready, because she was sure she’d "fucked up everyone’s life long enough."
There is no actual antagonist in this story, but the conflict is based on the poignant question of what price one should pay to be a sibling’s keeper. The copyright date on this book is 2004.