The Memory Keeper's Daughter

On a stormy winter night a young woman gives birth to twins, her doctor husband just happened to be the one to deliver his children and when he saw that one of the babies (the girl) had Down's Syndrome he tells his secretary to put the child in an institution. He tells his wife the baby died.

The secretary (who is secretly in love with the doctor) can't stand the idea of the baby in a place like that, so she keeps the child and raises her on her own.

Those two decisions (the doctor's and the secretary's) have long lasting implications for everyone involved and we follow their lives to their inevitable conclusions.

This was a pretty fair novel, with an original story, but the prose isn't going to light any fires. The best that can be said is that it is very readable.

I was a little disappointed that the most compelling relationship in the book didn't even start until near the end of the book and was only given 4 or 5 pages. No fair.

My good friend 3M chose this for the Something About Me Challenge because it takes place in an area of Kentucky where she used to live and like the male twin, she found out later in life that she had a sister she didn't know about. I can see why this book would so appealing to her (especially the relationship I mentioned in the last part of the book, I'd imagine). You could do worse than to read this book.