I could not put this book down. The secret we learn in the beginning propels the reader through the years covered in the story, knowing that secrets are very hard to keep ...
Synopsis: 1964 - On a snowy night, a Doctor delivers his wife's baby, with only the help of his nurse. Unexpectedly, his wife gives birth to a second child, and the doctor finds that this child has Down syndrome. Trying to spare his wife a life of challenges and loss, he tells her that the child died at birth. He gives the child to his nurse, with instructions to leave her at an institution. Instead, the nurse leaves town and takes the baby to raise her as her own.
My Thoughts: This is such a complicated story, with secrets and sorrow, and their effects as the years pass. This secret shapes the lives of all the characters, and most of them are not even aware of it. Extremely well-written, I have a vivid image of the characters, their homes, the worlds they inhabit. I finished the book last night, but it's one of those books where there characters will linger on with me for a while.
In Googling the book for the cover image above, I found that it had been turned into a movie on Lifetime. I know movies rarely do justice to the books they depict, but I think I'd like to see it, anyway.
rating: *****
read: November 2008
source: Kristin accidentally left this book here on her visit ... I'm glad she did! (and with her permission, I will donate it to the English Language Library in Angers)
