My Sister's Keeper (novel)

For the film adaptation, see My Sister's Keeper (film).

My Sister's Keeper
1st edition
Author(s)	Jodi Picoult
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Atria
Publication date	April 6, 2004
Media type	Print ( Hardcover & Paperback )
Pages	432 pp
ISBN	0-7434-5452-9
OCLC Number	54811160
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 22
LC Classification	PS3566.I372 M9 2004

My Sister's Keeper is a 2004 novel written by Jodi Picoult. It tells the story of 13-year-old Anna, who litigates her parents for medical emancipation when she is expected to donate a kidney to her sister Kate, who is dying from leukemia.

Plot

The story takes place in fictional town Upper Darby, Rhode Island in 2004. Anna Fitzgerald's older sister, Kate, suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia, a blood and bone marrow cancer. Anna was born as a savior sister specifically so she could save Kate's life. At first it is successful, but the cancer continues to relapse throughout Kate's life.

Anna is usually willing to donate whatever Kate needs, but when she turns 13, she is told that she will have to donate one of her kidneys. The surgery required for both Kate and Anna would be major; it is not guaranteed to work, as the stress of the operation may well kill Kate anyway; and the loss of a kidney could have a serious impact on Anna's life. Anna petitions for medical emancipation with the help of lawyer Campbell Alexander, so that she will be able to make her own decisions regarding her medical treatment and the donation of her kidney.

Anna's mother, Sara, is an ex-lawyer and decides to represent herself and her husband in the lawsuit. Over the course of the novel, she tries on several occasions to make Anna drop the lawsuit. Anna refuses to do so, but the resulting tension between her and her mother result in her moving out of the house to live with her father Brian in the fire station where he works. This is done on the advice of Julia Romano, the court-appointed guardian ad litem whose job it is to decide what would be best for Anna. Julia was once romantically involved with Campbell when they went to school together, but Campbell broke her heart when he left her. Unbeknown to Julia, Campbell left her because he discovered he had epilepsy and thought she deserved better.

Meanwhile, Anna's brother Jesse, who has spent most of his life being ignored in favor of ill Kate or donor Anna, spends most of his time setting fire to abandoned buildings with home-made explosives and doing drugs. He is a self-confessed juvenile delinquent. The one moment when his parents pay him any attention is when Brian discovers that it is Jesse who has been setting the fires. Brian forgives him, and by the end of the book, he has reformed and graduated from the police academy.

During the trial, it is revealed that Kate asked Anna to sue for emancipation because she did not want Anna to have to transplant, and because she believes that she will die anyway. The judge rules in Anna's favor, and grants Campbell medical power of attorney. However, as Campbell drives her home after the trial, their car is hit by an oncoming truck. Brian, the on-call firefighter who arrives at the scene, retrieves an unconscious and injured Anna from the wreckage of the crushed car and rushes her and Campbell to hospital. At the hospital, the doctor informs Sara and Brian that Anna is brain-dead, that the machines keeping her alive may as well be switched off, and asks them if they have considered organ donation. Campbell steps in, and declares that he has the power of attorney, and "there is a girl upstairs who needs that kidney." Kate is prepared for surgery, and Anna's kidney is successfully transplanted. Kate survives the surgery and remains in remission for at least six years (the book ends in 2010).

Kate believes that she survived because someone had to go, and Anna took her place. Six years later, she works as a dance instructor. She mentions that every time she sees two girls doing pliés at the barre she thinks of how she and Anna used to be.

Development history

Publication history

Picoult, Jodi. My Sister's Keeper. Atria Books: New York, 2004. ISBN 1416549178. ISBN 141654917X.

Critical reception

In review for The Washington Post, Katherine Arie described some of the characters as unconvincing, such as Brian, who is "too good to be true", Jesse, "a poster child for self-destructive behavior", and Kate, who is "as weak and wispy on the page as she's supposed to be in life", but ultimately called the book "a thrill to read".

In 2009 the American Library Association (ALA) and the office for Intellectual Freedom named My Sister's Keeper the seventh most frequently challenged book in the US. Schools and libraries attempted to ban the book for the following reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexual Explicity, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuitability to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence.

Adaptations

Main article: My Sister's Keeper (film)

New Line Cinema adapted My Sister's Keeper into a feature film, which was directed by Nick Cassavetes and released on June 26, 2009. It starred Cameron Diaz as Sara and Alec Baldwin as Campbell. Kate and Anna were played respectively by Sofia Vassilieva and Abigail Breslin.

The film, with an alternate ending and more emphasis on certain subplots while entirely eliminating others, has significant differences from the novel.

External links

• My Sister's Keeper at the author's site