Young Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a strange letter arrives summoning him away from his family. 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.
For as long as he can recall, Emmett has been drawn to books, even though they are strictly forbidden. Bookbinding is a sacred calling, Seredith informs her new apprentice, and he is a binder born. Under the old woman's watchful eye, Emmett learns to hand-craft the elegant leather-bound volumes. Within each one they will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there's something you want to forget, a binder can help. If there's something you need to erase, they can assist. Within the pages of the books they create, secrets are concealed and the past is locked away. In a vault under his mentor's workshop, rows upon rows of books are meticulously stored.
But 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. Soon, everything he thought he understood about his life will be dramatically rewritten.
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[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]***
(The Borough Press, 10 January 2019, 448 pages, ebook, borrowed from @GlasgowLib via @OverDriveLibs # TogetherWeRead)
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I thought this book was pretty fantastic. I loved the premise. The book is set far in the past, a time when books were forbidden and even talking about them was a monstrous sin, never mind what would be done to you if a book was discovered in your home. The first section of the novel deals with the fall out after Emmett buys a beautiful object which he later discovers is a book and is sent to be an apprentice binder when he becomes mysteriously ill. Emmett grows very fond of the old woman, Seredith he works for who makes books for the sheer pleasure of it and keeps them locked away. He discovers a surprising truth about people who come to see Seredith. People are bound which mean their memories are put in a book and removed entirely from their mind so they forget their past and themselves. I was engrossed from the opening page. The Binding touches on many genres including horror and historical fiction. I love it because it's about books and books are my thing.
