Thief

"In her relentlessly compelling new novel, Thief--which I read in a single sitting--Maureen Gibbon's plainspoken, tough-minded heroine gives herself an unsentimental education and issues a sorrowful yet stirring declaration of independence." --David Gates, author of Jernigan and The Wonders of the Invisible World

"Gibbon writes beautifully of the heartbreaking gulf between expectation and reality that women continue to endure, and the tragedies that await those who refuse to abide by these difficulties. It is her heroine's refusal to be afraid, her understanding of the violence at the heart of things, her embrace of the world's beauty, and her great conscience that save her, and inspire the reader." --Susanna Moore, author of The Big Girls

"In an odd way this book is a female, and highly sexual, version of Thoreau's Walden; there are some lovely bits about solitude, nature and solitude-in-nature, but Suzanne is a woman who craves and needs contact, and much of her contemplation is devoted to exploring the tangled roots of that need. Grim but inspiring, this is a flint-tough, plainspoken novel about a flint-tough, plainspoken woman who asks no pity and gives no quarter." --Kirkus Reviews

"This searing, compact novel can be read in one sitting for maximum intensity. Suzanne's direct voice, stripped of self-pity, will draw readers in and keep them there." --Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist