The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards

Norah goes into labor one night while it is snowing. Her husband, David, is a Dr. and takes her to his clinic, where his nurse will meet them. Norah gives birth to a healthy baby boy...and then to girl who has down syndrome. David doesn't want his wife to experience the grief of loving the daughter and then loosing her early, as often happens with kids with downs syndrom, so he gives the baby to the nurse and instructs her to take her to a home. However once the nurse gets to the home she realizes she can't do it and she disappears with the baby. David tells Norah that their daughter was stillborn.

This lie breaks the family apart. Norah always feels the grief of losing the daughter and David feels grief for the secret and giving their daughter away. This causes issues with the marriage and later effects their son.

David never tells Norah that her daughter is alive, even though he gets updates from the nurse. Then one day after David has passed away, the nurse shows up at Norah's front door and tells her the startling news.

This is a story about how these actions hurt one entire family, even though some of them weren't aware of what exactly caused the issues.

I thought the book was good but was almost disapointed because so many have told me how great the book was and how it was their favorite of the year, etc. I enjoyed it...but not enough to call it my favorite book - so that just makes me feel like I missed something.

new author/fiction/401pgs