The Memory Keeper's Daughter
A married couple safely makes it to the medical clinic for the birth of their first child. The husband, a doctor, delivers a new baby boy, but he is surprised when a twin girl follows. He also recognizes that his new daughter is afflicted with Down’s syndrome. He quickly asks the nurse to take the new born baby to a distant institution that specializes in such retarded children. But later when his wife Norah is awake and holding the new baby boy, he tells her that a twin girl was born, but did not live.
Dr. David Henry’s words create many unforseen conflicts in the story. Caroline, the nurse, keeps the baby because the institution is such a mess. Norah accepts her husband’s word about the twin being born dead and arranges a funeral for her. Caroline watches the funeral from a distance, but afterwards she disappears from town with the baby Phoebe. David faces the biggest conflict, because even with good intentions, he’d lied to his wife. He cannot get in touch with Caroline either, though he’d seen her at a funeral which was hard for either of them to accept. He also suffers years later when their son Paul is told about his twin sister who died at birth. Paul and his mother have to adjust their lives to a false idea, and David has to adjust his to the truth.
Norah tries to escape an uneasy relationship in their marriage by setting up her own travel business. But David concentrates on both his medical clinic and photography. Paul grows up with an unusual interest in classical guitar and later becomes a professional guitarist.
Caroline does well raising Phoebe, who mistakes Caroline and her husband Al for her biological parents. Caroline’s main fear for both herself and Phoebe is that the truth may be revealed and hurt them both.
Kim Edwards bases her novel on the question of where a child with Down’s syndrome might be placed in society today. She also vividly explores the mental challenges that the parents of such a child must face. David suffers as the father and memory keeper of a daughter he mistakenly loses.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter was published in 2005.