Helpless [Paperback]

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 mo (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 )

'Immensely well-observed . . . the acute psychological line
demanded by material of this sort gets trodden with an unobtrusive
delicacy' --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

'A thumping thriller' --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

* 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.

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.