Bound (Gunning)

Book Reviews
Skillfully employing the language, imagination and character that literary fiction demands, [Gunning] illuminates a fascinating moment in our past.
Washington Post Book World

Heartrending.... Gunning’s vibrant portrayal shows that the pursuit of happiness is not for the faint of heart.
Boston Globe

A well written, thought provoking mid-eighteenth century thriller.
Midwest Book Review

This book, eloquently written and exhaustively researched, is a warning along the lines of The Handmaid’s Tale, and just as necessary a read.
Feminist Review

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.
Publishers Weekly


Gunning reprises many of the characters from her 2006 novel, The Widow's War, in this suspenseful and engaging look at the New England colonies in the decades immediately preceding the American Revolution. Richly detailed and impeccably researched, the novel focuses on the life of Alice Cole, beginning with her arrival in Massachusetts as a seven-year-old child. In short order, Alice's father indentures her, forcing the girl to spend 11 years working to pay off a family debt. While her first taskmaster is kind, teaching her to read, write, and calculate, the second is not. A rape occurs, and Alice flees to Cape Cod, where she finds refuge and employment with a widow and her on-again/off-again boarder. Life, however, is far from simple, and the ensuing drama forces the now-adolescent Alice to grapple with what it means to pursue personal freedom. What's more, as she struggles to integrate past and present, the era's sexual politics and religious and political fervor come alive. The result is moving, compelling, and beautifully wrought; highly recommended for historical fiction collections.
Eleanor Bader - Library Journal


A young indentured servant in pre-Revolutionary War Massachusetts escapes her brutal master and begins a new life on Cape Cod in Gunning's sequel to her well-received The Widow's War (2006). Seven-year-old Alice Cole's destitute father sells her into indentured servitude and disappears from her life in 1756, as soon as they arrive in Boston after a harrowing passage from London. Mr. Morton is a benevolent master and his daughter Nabby becomes Alice's friend. When Nabby marries, Alice, now 15, goes with Nabby to complete her last three years of servitude. But because pre-Revolutionary law states that a husband owns everything his wife brings to the marriage, Nabby's husband, Mr. Verley, now owns Alice. Verley is a monster of barely believable proportions, raping Alice repeatedly while making sure Nabby knows and grows jealous. After a vicious beating that leaves her cheek scarred, Alice escapes. She stows away on a ship to Cape Cod, where she is taken in by the plucky, generous widow Liddy Berry. Liddy's boarder Eben Freeman is a lawyer, deeply involved in fighting the unfair taxes Britain has begun imposing on the colonies. Liddy and Alice begin a weaving business to replace imported British cloth. Readers of Gunning's earlier book will know that Liddy and Eben have more than a friendship going, but Alice has no clue. When Alice realizes Verley impregnated her, she tries, unsuccessfully, to hide her condition. When her baby dies shortly after birth, Alice is charged with murder and fornication. Eben helps clear her, but she then must face charges in Boston as a runaway slave. Alice is a mix of conniving and innocence, and her relationship with Liddy and Eben has intriguing undertones, but the lesser characters remain caricatures. Painting in broader strokes this time around, Gunning never adequately integrates her history lesson with the sexual intrigue.
Kirkus Reviews