My Sister's Keeper

My Sister’s Keeper
A novel

By Jodi Picoult


"Can a parent love too much? Or is too much never enough?"

"Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate – a life and a role that she has never challenged . . . until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister – and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. A provocative novel that raises some important ethical issues, My Sister’s Keeper is the story of one family’s struggle for survival at all human costs and a stunning moral parable for all time."

Thus reads the back cover of my edition of our book for September. My copy also has some questions for reading groups in the back but I’m trying not to read them until after I read the book myself.

I want to read the book on my own terms and see what I get out of it before I let someone else’s reading influence my thoughts. I haven’t started reading and already the topic has dredged up some old feelings from years back when the news was out about an older mother conceiving a child to try to save a dying one. That was a news story that really caught my attention and gave me lots to think about at the time, so I’m really looking forward to reading this novel.

I’ll try to post some talking points later this month, perhaps a week before the meeting.

Good Reading,
Pam Conner