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Kim Edwards Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Kim Edwards

Kim Edwards

Kim Edwards Biography

Kim Edwards is the author of a short story collection, The Secrets of a Fire King, which was an alternate for the 1998 PEN/Hemingway Award, and has won both a Whiting Award and the Nelson Algren Award, and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, her first novel, became a word-of-mouth best-seller, spending 122 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, 20 of those weeks at #1. Published in more than 38 countries, it was also a best seller in Italy, France, Germany, England, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Holland, and Taiwan. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter won the Kentucky Literary Award and the British Book Award. Her new novel is The Lake of Dreams.

From the author's website



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Interview

Kim Edwards discussed her inspiration for The Memory Keeeper's Daughter, and the challenges she faced in writing the book.

An Interview with Kim Edwards
Author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a powerful combination of a tragic and poignant family story as well as riveting page-turner, due primarily to the fact that it centers on such a shocking act by one individual that affects everyone he cares about. How did the idea for this novel come to you?
A few months after my story collection, The Secrets of a Fire King was published, one of the pastors of the Presbyterian church I’d recently joined said she had a story to give me. I was pleased that she’d thought of me, if a bit surprised—I was back in church after a 20-some year absence, and still quite skeptical of it all. Yet even to my critical eye it was clear that good things were happening: the congregation was vibrant and progressive and engaged; the co-pastors, a married couple who had both once been university professors, gave sermons that were beautifully crafted and thought-provoking, both intellectual and heartfelt. I’d already come to admire them very much. Still, it happens fairly often that people want to give me stories, and invariably those stories are not mine to tell. So I thanked my pastor, but didn’t think much more ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Kim Edwards at BookBrowse
The Lake of Dreams jacket The Memory Keeper's Daughter jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Kim Edwards but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Mira Bartok

    Mira Bartok

    Mira Bartók is a Chicago-born artist and writer and the author of twenty-eight books for children. Her writing has appeared in several literary journals and anthologies and has been noted in The Best American Essays ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Memory Keeper's Daughter

    Try:
    The Memory Palace
    by Mira Bartok

  • Barbara D'Amato

    Barbara D'Amato

    Barbara D'Amato is a playwright, novelist, and crime researcher. She began writing full-time in 1973, first co-writing plays with her husband, Anthony D'Amato.

    After trying different genres, her first published novel in 1980 ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Memory Keeper's Daughter

    Try:
    White Male Infant
    by Barbara D'Amato

We recommend 5 similar authors

View all 5 Read-Alikes

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