The Binding

The Binding by Bridget Collins. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780008272111.

I wish I had written it Erin Kelly 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 and a unique literary event.