Short Synopsis
Critically acclaimed author Antonya Nelson's much-anticipated first novel in a decade—a story of tangled lives, set in a Wichita riveted by the reemergence of an infamous serial killer.

Full Synopsis
Antonya Nelson is known for her razor-sharp depictions of contemporary family life in all of its sometimes sad, sometimes hilarious complexity. Her latest novel has roots in her own youth in Wichita, in the neighborhood stalked by the serial killer known as BTK (Bind, Torture, and Kill). A story of wayward love and lost memory, of public and private lives twisting out of control, Bound is Nelson's most accomplished and emotionally riveting work.

Catherine and Oliver, young wife and older entrepreneurial husband, are negotiating their difference in age and a plethora of well-concealed secrets. Oliver, now in his sixties, is a serial adulterer and has just fallen giddily in love yet again. Catherine, seemingly placid and content, has ghosts of a past she scarcely remembers. When Catherine's long-forgotten high school friend dies and leaves Catherine the guardian of her teenage daughter, that past comes rushing back. As Oliver manages his new love, and Catherine her new charge and darker past, local news reports turn up the volume on a serial killer who has reappeared after years of quiet.

In a time of haunting and new revelations, Nelson's characters grapple with their public and private obligations, continually choosing between the suppression or indulgence of wild desires. Which way they turn, and what balance they find, may only be determined by those who love them most.

"In this delightful blend of extraordinary circumstances and ordinary suburban life, Nelson beautifully and humorously exposes the deep connections among these characters." ---Library Journal Starred Review

"Nelson makes her story as big as it should be, and gives her characters room to run." ---The New York Times

"Nelson effectively explores issues of obligation, responsibility, and the possibility of creating new patterns and freeing ourselves from the past." ---Publishers Weekly

"Steady, controlled, almost deliberately flat, kept from peaks or valleys of emotion, Campbell mimetically conveys the stifled chaos of Nelson's protagonists, and of their bittersweet bond." ---Publishers Weekly Audio Review

"A small gem.... Sharp and deeply moving." ---Kirkus Starred Review

"[Nelson] shines once again in her depiction of the many guises of marriage, and family ties both strengthening and coming undone." ---BookPage

"One pleasure of reading Antonya Nelson is that she brings the careful language and control of literary fiction to uncontrolled, rough-and-tumble lives." ---Los Angeles Times

Kirkus Bestseller

Library Journal Review

New York Times Bestseller

AudioFile Earphones Award Winner

Kirkus Review