Bound: A Novel - Softcover

Gunning, Sally Cabot

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061240265 ISBN 13: 9780061240263

Publisher: Harper Publishers, 2009

Synopsis

Brought to New England and bound into servitude to pay her father's debts, Alice Cole, at fifteen, can barely remember the time when she was not a servant to John Morton. His daughter, Nabby—only three years older than Alice—begins as Alice's childhood companion, but when Nabby weds, she becomes Alice's mistress. But the marriage is not what it appears, and Alice, endangered by its storm, defies her new master and the law, and escapes to Boston. Impulsively stowing away on a ship to Satucket on Cape Cod, Alice believes that she has left her old life and her secrets behind. Yet in a time of unrest and uncertainty, as political and personal stakes rise and intertwine, she discovers that freedom, friendship, trust, and love each have a price far greater than she ever imagined.

About this title

About the Author:

A lifelong resident of New England, Sally Cabot Gunning has immersed herself in its history from a young age. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Satucket Novels—The Widow’s War, Bound, and The Rebellion of Jane Clarke—and, writing as Sally Cabot, the equally acclaimed Benjamin Franklin’s Bastard. She lives in Brewster, Massachusetts, with her husband, Tom.

From Publishers Weekly:

In Gunning's latest colonial page-turner, seven-year-old Alice Cole travels with her family from 1756 London to the New World, dreaming of a big house in Philadelphia and a new life. Her mother and brothers die on board and are buried at sea; the ship docks in Boston rather than Philadelphia; there, her father indentures her for 11 years without a backward glance. Alice does housework for the family of Simeon Morton of Dedham, in whose house she is treated almost like a second daughter, becoming constant companion to 10-year-old Abigail, or Nabby. When Nabby marries Emery Verley of Medfield, Alice's indenture is signed over to him, but the Verley household turns out to be an abusive one. Alice flees and winds up on Satucket, Cape Cod, where Lyddie Berry, heroine of Gunning's The Widow's War, and her companion, the lawyer Eben Freeman, give her shelter and a job. Alice works hard for them, and they grow fond of her, but when Alice discovers she's pregnant, she embarks on a journey of deceit and lies, one that comes to a bitter end. Gunning weaves a horrifying, spellbinding story of colonial indenture's cruelties and a meditation on the meaning of freedom. (Apr.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Publishers
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0061240265
• ISBN 13: 9780061240263
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304