Bestselling author checks out Windsor movie location

BY NADINE ARMSTRONG

The Hants Journal

NovaNewsNow.com

Who hasn't read a book and then watched the movie? For Kim Edwards, author of the bestselling novel The Memory Keeper's Daughter, it was an eye-opening experience to visit the set of the made-for-TV movie adaptation of her work.

She joined Rockwood Production manager Valerie Hallman for a tour of the Albert St. location last Friday in Windsor and was impressed with the scene and Nova Scotia in general.

This was Edwards’s first visit to our province and she said the drive up from Halifax was breathtaking. “It's just beautiful here,” she said. Her brother John accompanied her on the trip and said he was proud and happy for his sister.

Last year, Edwards’s novel was the big Christmas seller; seeing it produced for TV this year was a special gift.

“This is the first time I've ever been on a movie set. It's so exciting,” she said. Equally as exciting, The Memory Keeper's Daughter has been translated into over 30 languages.

Edwards, who is a professor at the University of Kentucky, said she has always wanted to write and has been doing so seriously for the past 20 years. When The Memory Keeper's Daughter hit the New York Times bestseller list, she knew she had made her mark. And a TV movie doesn't hurt sales, either. “I'm sure it’ll have an impact,” she said.

Is it like the book?

However, the big question in any writer's mind is how well the adaptation mirrors the original work. Edwards says that while writing, an author has her own visuals that would be impossible to match perfectly, but in this case the filming is very close to her vision.

“I've been really struck by the sensitivity and depth of perception shown here. To take it from the literary context to film is difficult, but they've done a wonderful job.”

The story follows the emotional journey of a doctor, played by Dermot Mulroney, who is forced to deliver his own twins during a blizzard. The son is born healthy, the baby daughter with Downs syndrome.

To spare his wife – actress Gretchen Mol - the young doctor chooses to hide the birth of his infant daughter by asking his nurse, played by Emily Watson, to take the child to an institution.

Edwards said she was pleased when she found out who was cast, and a bit starstruck. “I was thrilled when I heard who they had cast. It's not an easy task.” In fact, she has met Mulroney and said it was great.

It’s not typical to have the author on set during a film adaptation, but Hallman said they were more than happy to have Edwards there for the day. “It's always a real treat when the author comes to see what we're doing.” She said their job has been made easier since the book has been so popular and loved by so many.

Lexington, Kentucky is Edwards's hometown and she says it now has a population of over 250,000, much larger than Windsor, Nova Scotia. However, Lexington in the 1960s was a different place than it is today and Windsor fits the scene well.

“This area really does work,” she said. “It was a small town at the time of the story, much like Windsor is today.” Only warmer and with less snow, she added with a smile.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter is available through the Annapolis Valley Regional Library and has been disappearing off the shelves at The Inside Story bookstore at the Fort Edward Mall. A spokesperson there says they have been sold out, but more copies of the novel have been ordered and should be available soon, certainly in time for Christmas.