“This powerful novel should join classics like Ernest J. Gaines’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Helena Maria Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus, and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.”—New York Times Book Review
A gripping, gut-punch of a novel about a Cherokee child removed from her family and sent to a Christian boarding school in the 1950s—an ambitious, eye-opening reckoning of history and small-town prejudices from Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble.
Kit Crockett lives on a farm with her grief-stricken, widowed father, tending the garden, fishing in a local stream, and reading Nancy Drew mysteries from the library bookmobile. One day, Kit discovers a mysterious and beautiful woman has moved in just down the road.
Kit and the newcomer, Bella, become friends, and the lonely Kit draws comfort from her. But when a malicious neighbor finds out, Kit suddenly finds herself at the center of a tragic, fatal crime and becomes a ward of the court. Her Cherokee family wants to raise her, but the righteous Christians in town instead send her to a religious boarding school. Kit’s heritage is attacked, and she’s subjected to religious indoctrination and other forms of abuse. But Kit secretly keeps a journal recounting what she remembers—and revealing just what she has forgotten. Over the course of Stealing, she unravels the truth of how she ended up at the school and plots a way out. If only she can make her plan work in time.
In swift, sharp, and stunning prose, Margaret Verble spins a powerful coming-of-age tale and reaffirms her place as an indelible storyteller and chronicler of history.
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“Verble has harnessed the art of how to shoot straight to the heart of a story, and it is an experience not to be missed.”
— Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Vivid and immediate, passionate and meticulously researched…[a] courageous, thoughtful account."
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Margaret Verble is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Her first novel, Maud’s Line, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her second novel, Cherokee America, was named one of the 100 Notable Books of the Year.
Delanna Studi is an actress whose roles have included DreamKeeper , Edge of America, and Shameless. she is Native American, born in Oklahoma, and is the niece of the multiaward–winning actor Wes Studi. She was elected chairwoman of the President’s National Task Force for American Indians of the Screen Actors Guild. In 2007, she performed her one-woman show entitled “What’s an Indian Woman to Do?” in Los Angeles to rave reviews from LA Weekly and the Los Angeles Times.