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1-Page Summary of My Sister’s Keeper
The story of My Sister’s Keeper alternates between the present and the past. The bulk of the story takes place in one-and-a-half weeks, but there are flashbacks from different points in time leading up to that point. Sara Fitzgerald narrates some parts of the story from her perspective as a stay-at-home mom, while other parts are told by people who experienced them first hand. In 1990, doctors diagnose Sara’s two year old daughter with leukemia. This news shocks Sara and her husband Brian because they weren’t expecting this diagnosis for their child; however, Sara immediately resolves to begin treatment for Kate right away. Kate starts chemotherapy treatments and eventually needs a bone marrow transplant which can only be obtained from a related donor (her brother). Dr Chance suggests that another sibling could be used as a match since Jesse is not compatible with Kate’s blood type or tissue type (O+ & A+).
Sara’s story is told from the point of view of a mother and wife. She tells us about her daughter, Kate, who has cancer. As a result, Sara suffers as well because she needs to help Kate get better. This means that she must go through many procedures with her daughter so that they can have another child together who will be compatible with the bone marrow transplant for Kate. It is painful and difficult for both them and their family members as well. The author describes in great detail how much pain Kate goes through during all these procedures. The marriage between Sara and Brian starts to suffer due to all this stress but eventually recovers after they have another child named Anna who helps bring joy back into their lives again by becoming friends with Jesse (the son) whom he had previously been fighting with before his sister got sick from cancer.
The story begins with a girl named Anna, who is thirteen years old. She goes to see a lawyer and tells him that she wants to sue her parents for medical emancipation because her sister Kate has kidney failure and needs a transplant. The lawyer agrees to take the case pro bono (free of charge). When Anna’s parents find out about the lawsuit, they are furious at their daughter. They don’t understand why she would do something like this unless she were unhappy or had another reason for doing it. Because of all this commotion over the lawsuit, Judge Desalvo decides that there should be someone else making decisions about what is best for Anna besides just her parents and herself—someone who can make unbiased decisions based on what’s in Anna’s best interests. So he appoints Julia Romano as guardian ad litem, which means that Julia will make these kinds of decisions instead of either one of them. Meanwhile Jesse has been setting abandoned buildings on fire because he feels angry over his inability to save Kate from dying and his family not paying attention to him while they’re dealing with everything going on with Kate.
Kate becomes seriously ill and must be hospitalized. Dr. Chance says she will die within a week, but Anna refuses to change her mind about the lawsuit. The trial begins with Sara representing herself, while Brian takes Anna to stay with him at the fire station because he believes that if they remain in the same house together, Anna may unwillingly cave into her mother’s wishes and donate her kidney despite not wanting to do so. Meanwhile, through flashbacks Campbell and Julia alternately recall scenes from their high-school relationship when they attended a prep school populated by children from wealthy families where Julia felt like an outsider. In spite of this, Campbell fell in love with her anyway due to his friends’ reservations about dating someone who didn’t come from money as well as his parents’. Their relationship ended abruptly however when Campbell broke it off without explanation which left Julia heartbroken for years until she eventually moved on (and became a lawyer). In the present day, Campbell and Julia initially bicker with each other over their past history before ending up sleeping together just before the trial begins since neither one can sleep alone given recent events in both of their lives involving Kate’s illness as well as the upcoming court case against Anna regarding whether or not she should have surgery performed on her daughter against Kate’s wishes.
