The Binding by Bridget Collins
Imagine you could erase grief.
Imagine you could remove pain.
Imagine you could hide the darkest, most horrifying secret.
Forever.
The Binding is a fantasy; a book about books that is totally different from others I've ever encountered. In a world that is vaguely reminiscent of 19th-century England, books are terrifyingly powerful and dangerous things.
When we meet our protagonist, Emmet Farmer, he has recently suffered some sort of mental collapse and is no longer able to keep up with his farm chores. Given his strained relations with his family, we surmise that he has caused some kind of disgrace but he doesn't fully understand. He is sent to work as an apprentice for Seredith, a bookbinder; the old woman teaches him how to make endpapers, tool leather, and gild but Emmet soon learns that the true work of binding is magical. Distressed people arrive to see Seredith, asking to have their traumatic experiences put down on paper; they leave dulled but soothed. Seredith keeps their secrets safe in gorgeous books with the subject's name on the spine in her cellar - into which Emmett is forbidden to go. Somewhere among these books is one with Emmett's name on it, which contains the secret of his disgrace.
Emmett learns that the bookbinding business is rife for abuse; there is an illegal market for the trading of books while others misuse the services for their own nefarious purposes; among them is Seredith's son who, after her suspicious death, appropriates her stock of secret bindings and also takes charge of Emmett who, when he discovers the book with his name on it, is set on a path to recover his own lost past..
Without spoiling anything, this is a phenomenal tale of forbidden love; compelling and spellbinding, this novel is unlike anything I have ever read and for that reason is entirely unforgettable.
Submitted by Mary-Ellen
