9-year-old Kit Crockett lives in rural 1950s America with her father, with whom she is close, but both are dealing with the grief of her mother’s death and somehow unable to comfort each other. Passing her spare time fishing and reading books, Kit lives a quiet life until a mysterious and beautiful woman moves into her dead Uncle Joe’s cabin down the road. As the void left by the loss in her life is suddenly filled, a friendship blossoms; but a misunderstanding, and a meddling neighbour, lead to tragic circumstances that upend Kit’s life. Despite the loving and extensive Cherokee side of the family wanting to care for her, the state deems them incapable and sends her away to a Christian boarding school, where the aim is to give her a ‘proper’ Christian upbringing and education, and effectively whitewash her of her native heritage, culture and identity; and where unspeakable things happen to her. A secret journal helps Kit to unearth and unravel her memories, making sense of what happened to land her in this place and recording the trauma of life at the boarding school, subsequently giving her the impetus needed to plan her escape; and it’s through the pages of this journal that we are looking back and learning Kit’s story. In Kit we have such an engaging protagonist; at once candid, direct and determined, but also naive, confused and not always giving us the full picture, sometimes misconstruing situations, or not seeing them as an adult would – for better or worse. 

Stealing by Margaret Verble, who is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a powerful and moving coming-of-age novel set in a dark period of history, captured through the life of one girl and her family, but broadly representing the histories of so many families who were torn apart. Exploring themes including small-town prejudice, colonial forces versus indigenous culture, the injustices perpetrated against indigenous communities, the abuses of power and position inflicted on their most vulnerable, and religious indoctrination and religion as a controlling force; the bonds and strength of extended family, the value of heritage, the driving power of agency, and the consequences when children – indigenous children in particular – are not listened to, or taken seriously. There are triggering themes to watch out for but Kit’s resilience in the face of atrocities, harking back to the stories she has heard of her own heritage to give her strength, and her steadfast determination to make it home to the place and people where she belongs, lift the novel beyond its darkest moments.

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I read Stealing as an e-book published by Mariner Books in 2023.

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Margaret Verble is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Her first novel, Maud’s Line, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her second novel, Cherokee America, has recently been listed by the New York Times as one of the 100 Notable Books of the Year for 2019. Her third novel, When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky, was chosen by Booklist as one of the 10 Best Adult Novels of 2021. Her fourth and latest novel is Stealing. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky.