Like many good stories, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter begins on a dark and snowy night. But, unlike most first novels from barely known authors, the book has gone on to be one of the biggest hits in recent American publishing.
It has sold more than 3,5-million copies in the United States and is due for publication in at least 15 other countries. It has done all this despite — or perhaps because — it is about one of the most emotional and difficult situations any new parents might face: a child being born with Down’s syndrome.
The book has been the big ”sleeper hit” of the literary scene, following other mega-hits such as The Kite Runner and The Secret Life of Bees. The book’s author, University of Kentucky Professor Kim Edwards, had previously published only a collection of short stories, but is now one of the book industry’s hottest properties.
Initially, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, which came out in 2005, sold modestly in hardback. But gradually, through word of mouth, appearances by Edwards and its adoption by hundreds of book clubs across the US, the novel started to sell in droves.
It has now topped the bestseller lists for months and even prompted Edwards’s publishers, Penguin, to reissue her short-story collection. ”It is a very difficult thing to predict. Some books just have an X-factor,” said Michael Norris, editor of Book Publishing Report.
A key element of the success is the complex and emotionally fraught story that Edwards has wrought. The opening scene is the birth of a set of twins, a boy who is born healthy and a girl with Down’s.
The children’s father is the doctor who delivers them and recognises what has happened. He makes an instant choice to pretend the girl was stillborn and gives the baby to a nurse to take to a home. Instead, the nurse keeps the child and raises her.
In the meanwhile, as the story moves through the 1970s and 1980s, that decision starts to tear the doctor’s family and marriage apart.
The book has been a huge hit among parents of Down’s children and those who work with them. They have praised its portrayal of a child leading a full life and bringing happiness to a parent. ”A baby with Down’s syndrome is a baby first. The Down’s is secondary to that,” said Robin Zaborek, a manager of the Denver-based Mile High Down’s Syndrome Association.
Edwards got the idea for the book from someone who recounted a story about a man giving up a Down’s daughter without telling the child’s mother. But she did not develop the novel until she began teaching a writing workshop for mentally challenged writers. She then spent several years researching Down’s before finally putting pen to paper.
It has cast a spotlight on a condition that affects 350 000 Americans and is caused by a rare genetic problem. It has also given a positive portrayal of people who are still occasionally lampooned in certain areas of the media. In March, a sketch on the Fox TV sitcom The Winner outraged many advocacy groups after a joke was made about people with Down’s.
By contrast, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a tragic yet sympathetic account of how the condition can affect lives. For Dr Carl Cooley, of the Crotched Mountain Clinic in Concord, New Hampshire, it was a reminder of his daughter Sarah’s achievements.
She was born with Down’s but has now graduated from high school, has a job and is engaged to be married. ”She’s living a pretty independent life,” he said.
That rings a bell with Zaborek. She said the opening scene of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter reminded her of her emotions giving birth to her son, who has the condition.
”In the beginning I cried,” she said. ”But now I don’t know why.” In fact, she so enjoyed raising a child with Down’s that she also adopted a baby girl with Down’s. ”In the book, the child with Down’s syndrome is beautiful. That is true. That is our kids,” she said. — Guardian Unlimited Â