The Memory Keeper’s Daughter: A Novel by Kim Edwards is a fascinating story of familial secrets and the healing power of love.

A Kentucky spring blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. The first baby, a boy, is a normal, healthy baby, but the second child, a girl, has obvious traits of Down syndrome. The babies’ mother, Norah, is heavily sedated and unaware of the second baby’s condition. It was 1964 and not uncommon for babies born with Down’s to be sent to an institution. David makes a split decision, altering several lives forever. Convincing himself that he’s protecting his wife from heartache, he orders the attending nurse to take the baby to a nearby institution, swearing her to secrecy. He tells Norah that the infant died at birth.

The nurse, Caroline Gill, takes the infant to the institution as instructed, but at the last minute cannot leave the baby in that cold, uncaring place. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself.

Over the next quarter of a century, we follow the two families, the doctor, his wife and their healthy son, Paul, and the nurse Caroline with her “adopted” daughter, Phoebe. We feel Doctor David Henry’s guilt, Norah’s sense of “missing something,” their son’s inexplicable yearning. We watch Caroline as she loves and cares for Phoebe, guarding their precious secret.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a well-crafted novel. The author does a realistic job of showing the guilt and anxiety resulting in this hastily-made life-altering decision, and the fierce love parents have for their children, both biological and adopted. I think the author does a good job of showing the mind-set of the time, and how attitudes have changed over the years. I enjoyed this uplifting novel of the healing power of redemptive love.