The Binding - Bridget Collins

This may just win the prize for the most beautiful cover of any book I’ve read this year! Not only is the dust cover stunning, the hard cover underneath is adorned with gold pattern, which is a lovely surprise considering most hard covers are plain underneath their dust jackets. The novel is classed as fantasy historical fiction and my first thought at its opening was that the bleak and remote scenery was reminiscent of Dickens’s Great Expectations, when Pip is traversing the moody and eerie marshes. 

The historical setting of the book is similar to a nineteenth-century Britain (though geographical and historical markers are not given), and centres on the life of protagonist Emmett Farmer, who has suffered a mental collapse of some unspecified nature and therefore lost great chunks of memory, and is left weakened and unable to perform his family chores. Books are a greatly taboo subject in the world of the novel, and Emmett has been taught from a young age that they are forbidden, but does not understand why. So when a bookbinder, known as a ‘witch’ to the townspeople, who lives out in the lonely and unforgiving marshland calls upon him to go and work as her apprentice, he is further confused that his parents are willing to let him go. 

The writing style of Collins is perhaps one of the most beautiful I’ve read all year - magical, enthralling, lucid... and aptly described by Tracy Chevalier, another historical novelist, as ‘spellbinding’. Much like Dickensian writing you find yourself sucked into the captivating landscapes and rich, syrupy descriptions of everyday objects which are depicted with great fascination. This is Collins’s first adult novel and I can’t wait to follow her writing further. This novel took turns which I never imagined it would, and I was in awe at the author’s amazing imagination and ability to shock and surprise you up until the last pages. 

Rightly acclaimed as a Sunday Times bestseller, with, I’m sure, plenty more critical acclaim to come, this novel is massively worth reading for any literary fiend or lover of magical and captivating stories - perfect to snuggle up with in front of the fire at Christmas time!