debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...
of author
Lucy Christopher
Lucy Christopher is a British/Australian author best known for her novel '' Stolen'', which won the Branford Boase award 2010 in the UK, and the 2010 Gold Inky in Australia. Her second book, ''Flyaway'', was shortlisted for the 2010 Costa Book A ...
. It was published in the UK in 2009 and is the story of Gemma Toombs, a 16-year-old girl who is kidnapped by a 27-year-old man named Ty and taken to the middle of the Great Sandy Desert in the
Australian Outback
The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...
. Subtitled ''A Letter to My Captor'', the book is told in second person narrative as a letter from Gemma to Ty.
Plot
Whilst at a
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
airport, 16-year-old Gemma is kidnapped by 27-year-old Tyler “Ty” MacFarlane from a coffee shop after he drugs her coffee. He smuggles her away on a plane to Australia and takes her to the middle of the desert, expecting her to fall in love with him. Gemma disapproves of Ty, but after an incident she develops a soft corner for him. Ty has a nightmare about his past and shouts and screams until Gemma gets up and consoles him. Still Gemma has not entirely forgiven Ty and tries to escape by taking his vehicle but does not succeed as the truck gets stuck in the desert. Ty rescues her and takes care of her until her burns have healed. Now Gemma has started to think of Ty in a good way and Ty is happy with that. Ty wants her to realize the importance and beauty of nature which was the main reason he built this house in the middle of the desert. For this purpose he paints his entire outhouse and himself with colors that resemble nature. And this does it. That day Ty and Gemma fall asleep outside the house, on the sand itself. Gemma has now started falling for Ty. The next day Ty leaves to collect snakes as their venom is essential for the anti-venom that he is preparing. He leaves a note for Gemma about his whereabouts and Gemma goes in search of Ty behind the house near the water reserve and there a snake bites her. Ty takes Gemma to the mine site/civilization for her treatment after the anti-venom that he had preserved is out of date. Gemma asked Ty to stay with her in the hospital. He is arrested and whilst receiving treatment for her ordeal she is told that any feelings she had for Ty were due to the Stockholm syndrome.
Characters
Gemma Toombs - the 16-year-old protagonist of the novel. Originally from England, she and her parents, with whom she has a strained relationship, are on a trip in Thailand when she is kidnapped by a young man who takes her to one of the most isolated parts of the Outback in Australia.
Tyler "Ty" MacFarlane - the 24-year-old man who abducts Gemma. Prior to kidnapping her, Ty had been stalking Gemma for years, and decided that the only way to have her would be to drug her and take her to the middle of the Great Sandy Desert in Australia. There, he expects her to not only fall in love with him, but stay with him forever.
Publishing history
''Stolen'' was first published in the UK in 2009 by Chicken House. The first American edition was published by Scholastic in 2010. The book has been subsequently translated into French (as ''Lettre à mon ravisseur'', Gallimard, 2010), Dutch (as ''Brief aan mijn ontvoerder'', The House of Books, 2010), Greek (as ''Apagōgē'', Ekdoseis Psychogios, 2010), Danish (as ''Stjålet: Et brev til min bortfører'', Carlsen, 2011), and German (as ''Ich wünschte, ich könnte dich hassen'', Carlsen, 2011)
Awards
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Branford Boase award
The Branford Boase Award is a British literary award presented annually to an outstanding children's or young-adult novel by a first-time writer; "the most promising book for seven year-olds and upwards by a first time novelist." The award is sha ...
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...