My first two novels, Stolen and Flyaway, were written, for the most part, in sunlit woods: I knew what I wanted to explore, and I could see my way clearly to their endings. At other times the woods are dense: dark and tangled with briars, the paths forced from the footfall of deer and badger. Sometimes the woods are open and sunlit, the paths well marked. The process of writing can be a little like walking through a wood. I am actually quite intrigued as to how the title of this book is received by Australian readers. I wanted my novel to explore the psychological feelings that go with forced removal from and longing for a place, rather than the legalities of a political act.

I wanted to think deeper about the issues of being forced from and pulled towards this ‘interior’ Australian landscape, and, probably because I am also from European-Australian descent, I wanted to explore this from a viewpoint not distinctly aboriginal. In this sense, I wanted to explore the idea of being both attached to and estranged from landscape from an Anglo-Australian perspective. However, both of my characters are actually European imports and not distinctly aboriginal (though Ty does display an affinity and respect for the Walmajarri tribe that he grew up with). When Gemma says that “they kind of stole you too” she is linking Ty’s childhood experience of being stolen by the authorities to her own experience of being stolen by Ty, and yet she is inadvertently linking Ty’s experience to the forcible removal of the Stolen Generation from the Great Sandy Desert. And there is an allegorical link to the Stolen Generation. However, the book is about similar issues that may be associated with the Stolen Generation’s trauma those of belonging and being forcibly removed from a childhood landscape…the idea of a person being displaced within an Australian landscape. Obviously the word ‘stolen’ has huge connotations in Australia and I was initially concerned that Australian readers may think the book was about the Stolen Generation, which it’s not.

I thought long and hard about using ‘Stolen’ as a title.

Stolen by lucy christopher