Bound
A Novel
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- US$11.99
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Antonya Nelson is known for her razor-sharp depictions of
contemporary family life in all of its sometimes sad, sometimes
hilarious complexity. Her latest novel has roots in her own youth in
Wichita, in the neighborhood stalked by the serial killer known as BTK
(Bind, Torture, and Kill). A story of wayward love and lost memory, of
public and private lives twisting out of control, Bound is Nelson's most accomplished and emotionally riveting work.
Catherine
and Oliver, young wife and older entrepreneurial husband, are
negotiating their difference in age and a plethora of well-concealed
secrets. Oliver, now in his sixties, is a serial adulterer and has just
fallen giddily in love yet again. Catherine, seemingly placid and
content, has ghosts of a past she scarcely remembers. When Catherine's
long-forgotten high school friend dies and leaves Catherine the guardian
of her teenage daughter, that past comes rushing back. As Oliver
manages his new love, and Catherine her new charge and darker past,
local news reports turn up the volume on a serial killer who has
reappeared after years of quiet.
In a time of hauntings and new
revelations, Nelson's characters grapple with their public and private
obligations, continually choosing between the suppression or indulgence
of wild desires. Which way they turn, and what balance they find, may
only be determined by those who love them most.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nelson s (Talking in Bed) first novel in 10 years is set largely in the author s childhood town of Wichita, Kans. Catherine Desplaines and her husband, Oliver, are at a crossroads in their marriage. The much older Oliver has perfected a pattern: marry, stay around for 15 years, then trade up to a younger woman. He and Catherine have been married for 18 years, which might seem impressive if Oliver didn t have a mistress, known only as the Sweetheart. Catherine is too preoccupied to notice his infidelities since she s become the guardian of an old friend s teenage daughter, Cattie, after the friend dies suddenly. The girl s impending arrival sends Catherine s mind reeling back to her adolescence, when the infamous BTK (bind-torture-kill) serial killer, who coincidentally makes a reappearance in the novel s present day, terrorized the neighborhood. Plays on the idea of binding can grow precious at times, but Nelson effectively explores issues of obligation, responsibility, and the possibility of creating new patterns and freeing ourselves from the past. Chapters from the perspectives of Oliver, Catherine, Cattie, and even Cattie s dog assemble into a coherent, compassionate whole.
