Helpless
|
|
Helpless is Barbara Gowdy’s brilliant new novel, a
provocative, gripping story of an unthinkable act and a mother’s heroic love for
her child.
Rachel is an uncommonly beautiful young girl. With her tawny
skin, pale blue eyes and chromium-blond hair, she is a cherished gift to her
mother, Celia. Celia is a single parent holding down two jobs. All too aware of
her own precarious equilibrium, she worries about Rachel’s innocent longing for
her unknown father.
When a blackout plunges the city into darkness and confusion,
Rachel is snatched away. Celia, numb with terror and guilt about the choices she
has made, confronts the reality of every mother’s worst nightmare. The media
coverage is tremendous. Closely monitoring it is Ron, a small-appliance
repairman with a rare collection of vintage vacuums in his basement. Though
Rachel is a stranger to him, he feels oddly connected to her, as though she is
his responsibility. His feelings for her are, at once, tender, misguided and
chillingly possessive.
Tapping into the fear and tension just below the surface of
contemporary city life, Gowdy’s clear-eyed prose artfully urges us to consider
what we dare not look at too closely. With her uncanny ability to lay bare our
common soul and to fearlessly explore the intricate complexities of love, Gowdy
has created a masterful novel.
|
|
|
Author Extras
|
|
|
|
Critical Praise for
Helpless
"Gowdy takes someone we would like to contain in a box marked "monster" and brings him too close to dismiss so conveniently.... She also creates a book that stands out among an already unique and powerful body of work."
—
Times Colonist (Victoria)
"A page turner that finds tension not in the obvious question, but in more personal ones."
—
The New York Times
"An assured, perceptive, deftly delivered story."
—
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[Helpless] is all the more chilling for its calm, understated reporting…. A nail-biting tale of suspense."
—
Library Journal (starred review)
"A genuinely suspenseful read, gripping to the last page.... The story... is a powerful one, with all its ironies, a fiction that arouses fear and pity and resolves these wrenching emotions in a truthful way."
—
Toronto Star
|
The White Bone
Traumatized in the wake of an attack by ivory poachers, a herd of elephants sets out for A Safe Place, guided by Mud, a young elephant cow blessed with visionary powers. The White Bone is a classic quest story made dazzling and audaciously original, as the elephants struggle for their own lives...
|
|
Mister Sandman
Steepedin deception and immoderate passions, the Canary family fights, laughs and lies as their mute but musically brilliant youngest child, Joan, listens, blending their discordant conversations into harmony. And just when things reach an irredeemable low, Joan's experimental composition allows...
|
|
|
|