Download Standard Podcast In this latest podcast featuring new AudioBooks from HarperCollins, we ve got a real audio treat for you. Noted Canadian Arts Journalist Laurie Brown, the host of CBC Radio Two s The Signal, reads from award winning author Barbara Gowdy s latest novel, Helpless. This is a provocative book on many levels. First, Gowdy dares to take us into the psyche of a pedophile-in-the-making. Ron is a vacuum cleaner repair man who has convinced himself that Rachel, a beautiful young girl he s fascinated with, needs to be saved from her mother. Ron builds a special room for Rachel, a place full of games and toys, and during a terrible storm kidnaps Rachel and take her there. Rachel s Mom - Celia - another very provocative character, works at a video store during the day and plays at a piano bar in the evening. She s a single Mom raising her daughter in Cabbagetown - an eclectic area of Toronto - a place where the well to do live cheek by jowl with some pretty colourful, and occasionally, downright dangerous characters. And then there s Ron s girlfriend Nancy. She s getting a wee bit long in the tooth and knows that there won t be a lot of new men coming along. Nancy thinks Ron s a nice guy, but every so often she gets to wondering - What s going on down there in that room? Buy Helpless amazon.ca chapters.ca
Licensing: ©HarperCollinsCanada 2003-2006
