The release date for the English version of 'The Binding' by
Bridget Collins is Jan 2019. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
In Collins's other reality, which is eerily evocative of 19th-century England, books are hazardous objects. In this planet, people go to book binders to get rid of memories that are hurtful or dangerous. Their recollections can no longer harm or haunt them once their tales have been shared and are contained inside the pages of a book.
Emmett Farmer is ordered to live and work as an apprentice at one of these binder's workshops after experiencing a mental breakdown and being unable to keep up with his agricultural responsibilities. Emmett leaves his family and home behind and gradually regains his health while mastering the binding profession. He spends several months tooling leather book covers, gilding edges, and marbling end pages since he is not allowed to access the secure area where books are kept. But the individuals that enter and exit the inner sanctuary grab his interest, and all changes when the lordly Lucian Darnay shows there. He feels a connection with him.