Helpless

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Description

A suspenseful and haunting novel of abduction and obsessive love, comparable to Ian McEwan's A CHILD IN TIME and John Fowles's THE COLLECTOR

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.

Reviews

** 'Gowdy has an utterly strange and wildly fertile imagination ... Her crafted, delicate prose has the disarming effect of making even the weirdest character seem perfectly normal and worthy of empathy' THE TIMES ** 'Canada's female novelists are taking the world by storm. There was never any question about the extraordinary qualities of Carol Shields and Margaret Atwood, but now Barbara Gowdy has clearly joined them' DAILY MAIL '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

Author Bio

Barbara Gowdy is a prize-winning Canadian author; the recipient of the Marian Engel Award in 1996, she has been a finalist for the Giller Prize, the Governor General's Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Trillium Award and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

Author Location: Toronto

THE ROMANTIC; THE WHITE BONE; MISTER SANDMAN; WE SO SELDOM LOOK ON LOVE; FALLING ANGEL