The Binding

Product Information

She was inspired to write her first adult novel, The Binding because of her work as a volunteer with The Samaritans. Faced with stories of pain and heartache she began to wonder what would happen if she could take the memory of the painful experiences away from them, leaving them to begin again. For the young apprentice binder Emmett Farmer the moment of binding wrenches out the deepest part of a person, leaving a hole in its place. There are times in life we all go through painful things, things we wish hadn't happened, and which make us sad and anxious, or worse, to remember. What if you could have those memories removed? What if you could choose what you remember, to keep the good and get rid of the bad? It was hard for me to connect with this story in the beginning. The intricate descriptions and vague plot set-up had my attention dwindling. I actually considering putting The Binding down, but thankfully I pushed through, and by part two I was hooked! Tracy Chevalier has compared Bridget Collins’s adult debut to a slice of dark chocolate cake and this is a very good comparison; in fact any dark, rich, dense confectionery (Gothic Literature’s food equivalent) is an apt comparison. Set in alternative nineteenth century, The Binding is a gorgeous love story – as steamy and as full of anguish and sweetness as any of the best Gothic Romances – and a meditation on memory. In a piece for the Foyles online blog, Collins states that one of the inspirations for The Binding was her time volunteering with the Samaritans:

I had such high hopes for this book, and I'm left feeling dreadfully disappointed. This book was overhyped, and that I'm positive of. I really couldn't wait to get my hands on this. The plot sounded intriguing and I adored the cover. Lets be honest, it is quite something, and I was kind of lured in by it. This emphasis on memory also adds depth and complexity to the love story, which is told from the point of view of both characters but they remember different things at different points. Therefore having more or less knowledge than the other at the different points adds to the drama and creates a real sense of urgency during the later parts of the book and leading up to the climax.A slow start, but I'm so glad to have continued The Binding, as I ended up really enjoying the rest of the story! So what happened after this point that had me feeling disappointed in this book? In parts two and three, the relationship between Emmett and Lucian dominated the story. I felt this was detrimental to the story at large and to the premise it was built on. I enjoyed their relationship, but the details of it became repetitive and drawn out, and very little about bookbinding was explored outside of their lives. The morality and philosophy of bookbinding would have made for an interesting discussion among the characters who might question their world a little more and get the reader thinking along with them. Instead, I was a bystander in the story, able to sympathize with the characters, but not able to fully immerse myself in all that was happening after part one. I wanted to see more of that world and have the peripheral characters better developed such as Emmett’s sister who only had one thing on her mind. Villainous characters, likewise, were one dimensional. It was as if the author had used all her energy on Emmett and Lucian and had little left over for much else besides describing the environment around them. In this, the writing is highly descriptive and often poetic, which is both a compliment and a complaint. On the positive side, the author is an expressive and extremely observant person who details her story in beautiful and surprising ways. Me hubiera gustado más que la trama se centrara obviamente en el trabajo de encuadernador, de contarnos historias y de revelarnos secretos de familias y antiguos linajes. Pero no, la trama da un giro inesperado que se centra en una relación amorosa que si bien en algunos momentos no he terminado de conectar con los sentimientos de los personajes, me ha parecido bonita.

The book starts strongly with Emmett, the teenage son of a farmer, apprenticed to Seredith, an old binder who lives on the edge of a marsh. Just as he is settling into his new life and learning his trade, he makes a discovery – one of the books in her bindery vault bears his name.Emmett Farmer is trying to resume his normal life; illness has not only robbed him of his memories of the previous summer but his strength, leaving him unable to work on the family farm. Then a letter arrives, summoning him to begin an apprenticeship with the local Bookbinder. However, in Emmett’s world, books aren’t works of fiction but real people’s real memories. Is there something you want to forget? A secret you need to hide? A Bookbinder can make you a beautiful, handcrafted volume into which your memories will be recorded and stored away safely forever, and, however traumatic, you’ll never remember. It’s a vocation that stirs up fear, superstition, and prejudice – the local Bookbinder Emmett is to be apprenticed to lives alone in a house on the marshes and is frequently referred to as a “witch.” But, with her, Emmett begins to face the prospect of recovery until the arrival of a stranger who may not be so strange and the discovery in the Bookbinder’s vault of a volume with Emmett’s name on it.