Penny S. (pennys) reviewed on 12/6/2006 + 194 more book reviews

On a winter night in 1964. Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when is his daughter is born he sees immediately that she has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter their lived forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this beautifully told story that unfolds over a qurter of a century-in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that long ago winter night. Norah Henry, who knows only that her daughter died at birth, remians inconsolable, her grief weighs heavily on the marraige. And Paul, their son, raises himself as best he can, in a house grown cold with mourning. Meanwhile Phoebe, the lost daughter grows from a sunny child to a vibrant young woman whose mother loves her as fiercly as if she were her own

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