The Memory Keeper's Daughter

The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a novel by the American author Kim Edwards. It was published by Viking Press in June 2005 and tells the story of a man who gives away his newborn daughter, who has Down syndrome, to one of the nurses. The book generated great interest by word of mouth in the summer of 2006 and placed on the New York Times paperback bestsellers list.

The opening scene is a snowstorm and an emergency. David Henry delivers his wife's twins himself with the assistance of Caroline Gill, and when the second baby is found to have Down syndrome he gives her to the nurse and asks her to take the child to an institution. Caroline visits the institution, sees the conditions there, and instead takes Phoebe home to raise her, which is the decision the whole novel is built on.

From that point the book follows two households that do not know about each other, and the secret becomes the organising fact of both. The novel was adapted into a television film that premiered on Lifetime Television on 12 April 2008.