Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Living... in Providence, Rhode Island, with her parents and older sister Kate in a dysfunctional family. As Anna explains, "Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed – sometimes it covers you just fine, and other times it leaves you cold and shaking. And worst of all, you never know which of the two it's going to be."
Profession… student. But she has another profession: her “sister’s keeper.” The primary reason she was brought into the world by her parents – especially her mother, Sara – was to be a compatible donor for her sister Kate, who has leukemia. She is constantly going to the hospital for surgeries. She has been under the knife so many times that she is starting to have nightmares that she has been cut into so many pieces that the doctors won’t be able to put her back together again.
Interests... none. She has no time for the fun activities normal kids her age get to do.
Relationship Status… single. She is only 11, after all. But being raised by your mother to be a human petri dish doesn’t really lend itself to romance.
Challenge... trying to live her own life. But her mother is not giving her the chance to do that. So Anna has an idea to take matters into her own hands. If her parents won’t fight for her rights, maybe she can find someone else who will. Anna loves Kate, but surely Anna has a right to her own life as well.
Personality... determined and reserved. Others consider Anna a loner, but she doesn't see herself that way. She is not reclusive by choice; she just has been disappointed too many times by others that the only person she can really trust is herself.
Get to Know her in...
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Sara and Brian live an idyllic life with their young son and daughter. But their family is rocked by sudden, heartbreaking news that forces them to make a difficult and unorthodox choice in order to save their baby girl's life. The parents' desperate decision raises both ethical and moral questions and rips away at the foundation of their relationship. Their actions ultimately set off a court case that threatens to tear the family apart, while revealing surprising truths that challenge everyone's perceptions of love and loyalty and give new meaning to the definition of healing.
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Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate—a life and a role that she has never challenged until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister—and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.
