The Binding is one of those books that transcend genres. I bought this book because of the cover, and because Tracy Chevalier had called it ‘spellbinding’, and because quite a few people I follow on social media had been raving about it. Soon, everything he thought he understood about his life will be dramatically rewritten. In a vault under his mentor’s workshop, rows upon rows of books are meticulously stored.īut while Seredith is an artisan, there are others of their kind, avaricious and amoral tradesman who use their talents for dark ends-and just as Emmett begins to settle into his new circumstances, he makes an astonishing discovery: one of the books has his name on it. Within the pages of the books they create, secrets are concealed and the past is locked away. If there’s something you need to erase, they can assist.

If there’s something you want to forget, a binder can help. Within each one they will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. Under the old woman’s watchful eye, Emmett learns to hand-craft the elegant leather-bound volumes. Bookbinding is a sacred calling, Seredith informs her new apprentice, and he is a binder born. He is to begin an apprenticeship as a Bookbinder-a vocation that arouses fear, superstition, and prejudice among their small community but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse.įor as long as he can recall, Emmett has been drawn to books, even though they are strictly forbidden. Young Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a strange letter arrives summoning him away from his family. This novel is a mix of various genres- dystopian, fantasy, fiction, romance- and is an enjoyable quick read.Imagine you could hide the darkest, most horrifying secret. The book holds a crucial secret about Emmett's own life which he has forgotten and it has the power to change his life forever. Eventually he discovers a book with his name on it. When Emmett meets Lucian Darnay, one of her clients, he feels unsettled but doesn't know why. While working for her, Emmett soon discovers that through her binding Seredith tries to help people forget their traumatic memories, hiding them safely in books which are kept in her vault. He gets a letter summoning him to work as an apprentice for Seredith, a bookbinder who is believed to be a witch by many. The story revolves around Emmett Farmer, who works in his family's farm and has been sick for a few months due to unspecified reasons. The reason: they are written by binders and capture incidents from people's memories which they wish to forget forever.

The Binding is set in an alternate universe where books are considered bad and shouldn't be read. Set in an alternate England, in no specific date or period, the book is a fantasy with a love story at its core. After penning a series of Young Adult fictions, Bridget Collins has written her first fantasy novel- The Binding which is also her first adult novel.

The binding bridget collins review