"When the letter came I was out in the fields, binding up my last sheaf of wheat with hands that were shaking so much I could hardly tie the knot. It was my fault we'd had to do it the old-fashioned way, and I'd be damned if I was going to give up now; I had battled through the heat of the afternoon, blinking away the patches of darkness that flickered at the side of my vision, and now it was nightfall and I was almost finished."
Imagine you could erase your grief. Imagine you could forget your pain. Imagine you could hide a secret. Forever.
Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a Bookbinder, a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice - but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse.
He will learn to hand-craft beautiful volumes, and within each he will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there's something you want to forget, he can help. If there's something you need to erase, he can assist. Your past will be stored safely in a book and you will never remember your secret, however terrible.
In a vault under his mentor's workshop, row upon row of books - and memories - are meticulously stored and recorded.
Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing discovery: one of them has his name on it.
The Binding is an unforgettable, magical novel: a boundary-defying love story with a unique literary event.
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I have so many good things to say about this book that I hardly know where to begin. The concept of this book had me captivated from the very beginning and each page drew me further and further in. In fact, I flew through it within a couple of days and I enjoyed every word.
It is a difficult book to pin down to a particular genre as it has so many different elements swirling around within it's covers. It is part love story and part magical realism and it is all set within an unspecified historical setting.
The characters were well crafted and came alive on the page. It was easy to feel involved in their passions and disappointments. Excellent and well written characters in every way.
The setting and atmosphere elevated this book well above the ordinary. It has a cinematic quality to it and I would be surprised if the film rights are not picked up at some point as it would transfer to the screen very well.
Ms. Collins is a skilled storyteller and created a book that is thought provoking and original. I will remember this book for a long time as, despite it's fantastical basis, the human emotions were one's that we can all readily identify with. I highly recommend it.
ISBN: 978 0008272111
Publisher: The Borough Press
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Bridget Collins trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after reading English at King's College, Cambridge. She is the author of seven acclaimed books for young adults and has had two plays produced, one at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Binding is her first adult novel.
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