I am perplexed by the sister's ability to remember other random details pertaining to life and society, but when it comes to her brother or past all of that information is gone. Wouldn't both of those things be stored in the same region(s) of her brain? I don't think you have to completely wipe her memory of family to make amnesia an effective plot device. It simply needs to be enough to make it difficult to answer the central question of the story. I guess the whole "I'm starting to like you because I don't remember you" wouldn't work then, though.