by Kim Edwards
First published 2007
Winter 1964. A blizzard traps Dr. David Henry as his wife Norah goes into labor with twins. He delivers their son without complications, but their daughter is born with Down syndrome. In a moment that will shatter two families, David tells nurse Caroline to take the baby to an institution and inform his wife the child died. Caroline cannot abandon the infant. She vanishes to another city and raises the girl as her own. The lie spreads like poison through both households. Norah mourns a daughter she believes is dead, her grief slowly destroying her marriage to David. Their son Paul grows up in a home heavy with unexplained sorrow. Miles away, the daughter Phoebe thrives under Caroline's devoted care, becoming a joyful young woman who has no idea her birth parents exist. Twenty-five years pass. Two mothers love the same child. One family crumbles under the weight of a secret. Another flourishes built on that same deception.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, adoption, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, found-family, secrets
Setting: United States
Period: 1964, 1980s
401 pages · Paperback · Yi Lin Chu Ban She/Tsai Fong Books
Content warnings: child-death, medical-trauma