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ATRIA, 2004
(available in paperback from Washington Square Press, 2005)
ANNA FITZGERALD WAS genetically engineered to be a donor match for her older sister, Kate, who suffers from a rare form of leukemia. Since birth, Anna has given parts of her body to help Kate fight illness: first, her umbilical cord, then platelets, blood, and bone marrow. Now, Kate needs a kidney, and at thirteen, Anna is tired of making sacrifices. With the help of a lawyer, Anna sues her parents for medical emancipation: the right to make all future medical decisions about her own body. The ensuing drama unfolds through many voices: that of Sara, the mother, torn between her impulse to protect Kate’s health and her duty to be a good mother to Anna; Brian, the father, a firefighter who empathizes with Anna as he works to maintain his marriage; Jesse, the troubled oldest child in the family; and even Campbell Alexander, the self-involved lawyer with a secret to hide. With the trial approaching, relationships between the Fitzgerald family continue to shift, as Kate’s health deteriorates and Anna appears to waffle in her determination to bring the lawsuit to completion. The dramatic, surprise ending resonates long after the last page of the book.
Author Jodi Picoult made these comments about her recipe to pair with My Sister’s Keeper:
When I did my research for My Sister’s Keeper, I spent time working with firemen and sleeping over at the local fire station. There’s a camaraderie to firefighters that, in My Sister’s Keeper, is the tightly bound family that Brian Fitzgerald will never have at home, due to his daughter Kate’s leukemia and his wife Sara’s obsession over keeping her alive. My first dinner at the firehouse was a homemade marinara sauce over pasta—a sauce that is a lot like this one. Of course, we were interrupted by a fire bell—but that’s what’s also great about this sauce: It’s reheatable!
This basic marinara sauce recipe comes from the October 2007 issue of Cooking Light magazine.
3 tablespoons olive oil 3 cups chopped yellow onion (about 3 medium onions) 1 tablespoon sugar 3 tablespoons minced garlic (about 6 cloves) 2 teaspoons salt 2 teaspoons dried basil 1½ teaspoons dried oregano |
1 teaspoon dried thyme 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper ½ teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 2 cups fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth 3 28-ounce cans no-salt-added crushed tomatoes |
NOTE: This makes a very large batch of sauce. You can freeze any leftover sauce.
Heat oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion to pan; cook 4 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add sugar and next seven ingredients (through fennel seeds); cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in vinegar and cook 30 seconds. Add broth and tomatoes, then bring to a simmer. Cook uncovered over low heat for 55 minutes, or until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally.
Yield: About 12 cups
The Chicklits of New York City describe My Sister’s Keeper as “the perfect book club book.” The twenty women found much to discuss in the sisters’ relationship explored in the book. Some members talked about their own sibling relationships, while those without siblings, or with much older siblings, discussed similar close bonds with friends as a substitute for the sibling bond. The group explored the story from all perspectives, and concluded, says Ella Leitner, that there were no right decisions. “We had sympathy for everyone in the book,” she comments. Leitner, who was pregnant at the time of the meeting and had had difficulty conceiving, particularly empathized with Sara’s position. “I could relate to Sara’s feeling that wanting a healthy child trumps everything,” says Leitner.
The Chicklits often pair food with their reading selections. For My Sister’s Keeper, the hostess instructed everyone ahead of time to ask a sister—or, if they didn’t have one, their best friend—to provide a favorite recipe that reminds them of family, and distributed the collected recipes on the night of the meeting.
When the Wednesday Afternoon Lunch and Book Club of Northern San Diego, California, discussed My Sister’s Keeper, hostess Pam Davis prepared a meal to celebrate the emotionally rich themes of the book. Her spread included savory spinach salad, wishbone chicken noodle soup, and heart-shaped cookies.
Each course triggered discussion about some aspect of the book, according to Davis. The salad combined spinach and bacon, “very different on their own, but together something special—not unlike the two sisters from the story,” she explains. Members were reminded of the dedication between the sisters, and inspired to share special moments of their own sister relationships. Davis’s homemade chicken noodle soup—accompanied by a dried wishbone displayed on the table—was an opportunity for group members to make a wish, just as Kate and Anna did at the Thanksgiving table. “The dried wishbone provided welcome comic relief from an otherwise serious topic,” says Davis. For dessert, heart-shaped cookies spurred discussion about what the women would be willing to sacrifice for their own siblings and children. “It seems that when gathered around a table enjoying a good meal, we are more likely to share from our hearts,” say Davis.
