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Helpless

Helpless

by Barbara Gowdy (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2007

    $3.44

  • Used

    Paperback 2008

    $3.44
Synopsis

Celia is the struggling single mother of an exceptionally, angelically beautiful child: nine-year-old Rachel. All too aware of the precarious balance of the life she has built for the two of them, she worries about her daughter's longing for the father she has never met. When Rachel disappears one summer night during a blackout, Celia is stricken with guilt and terror about what her choices might now mean for her daughter's fate. The media coverage of the abduction is tremendous, running nationwide. Closely monitoring events is Ron, an appliance repairman who lives in the neighbourhood. Though Rachel is a stranger to him, he convinces himself that she is his responsibility. His feelings for her are at once tender, misguided and chillingly possessive. Tapping into the fears that lie just beneath the surface of modern urban life, HELPLESS is a haunting and provocative story of heart-stopping suspense.

$3.44

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 320
 Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 07 Jun 2007
ISBN 10: 0316027847
ISBN 13: 9780316027847

Media Reviews
'From the accomplished Canadian novelist and short-story writer, an all-consuming tale of child abduction . . . An assured, perceptive, deftly delivered story' KIRKUS starred review 'Gowdy cleverly makes us wait for the kidnapping we know is coming, forcing us to watch as Ron moves closer and closer, like a shark circling its prey . . . A page-turner that finds tension not in the obvious question (Will Rachel be rescued?), but in more personal ones: Will Rachel grow to trust Ron? Will Ron give in to his yearnings? Will Nancy betray Ron and help Rachel?' NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF BOOKS 'Immensely well-observed . . . the acute psychological line demanded by material of this sort gets trodden with an unobtrusive delicacy' INDEPENDENT 'A thoughtful and elegantly written novel' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH '...this Canadian writer tells a nail-biting story of child abduction with both skill and wonderful quirkiness' Lionel Shriver DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A striking feature of Gowdy's novel is the homage it pays to John Fowles's first novel, The Collector. Structurally and stylistically, however, Gowdy takes her own line. More conventional and much less chilling than Fowles's, the third-person narrative switches between the viewpoints of Celia, Ron and the essentially good-hearted Nancy. Gowdy is a graceful stylist with a strong inclination to explain her adult characters' actions in terms of their childhood experiences: each of the main protagonists, including, of course, Rachel herself, has suffered some kind of fracture of love while growing up . . . [a] thoughtful, elegantly written novel' Jane Shilling in the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Gowdy switches her viewpoints between Ron, Nancy and Celia. Nancy's complex, needy character fascinates, while Rachel makes a passive, cipher-like victim; but it is the subtle intensity of Ron's manoeuvring that gives this slow-paced thriller its terrific suspense' James Urquhart in the FINANCIAL TIMES 'Gowdy writes as if she's on a sinking boat and needs to throw out all the dead weight. The only words that survive are the ones that matter . . . the result is a page turner' Chelsea Cain - SCOTSMAN 'A masterful tale' BELFAST TELEGRAPH 'Immensely well-observed . . . the acute psychological line demanded by material of this sort gets trodden with an unobtrusive delicacy' INDEPENDENT 'A gripping novel, tense and haunting, with heroic, misguided characters' WATERSTONE'S BOOKS QUARTERLY
Author Bio
Barbara Gowdy is a prize-winning Canadian author. THE ROMANTIC was selected for the Booker longlist, while THE WHITE BONE and MISTER SANDMAN have both been picked as TLS Books of the Year. Two of Barbara Gowdy's works of fiction have been made into films.