HarperCollins Publishers Inc Stealing : A Novel

“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 ReviewA 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.