So I recently received a review copy of Stolen by Lucy Christopher. It’s her debut novel that Booklist calls “…a complex psychological study that is also a tribute to the hypnotic beauty of the outback…” Darn them. I was totally going to say that.

In all seriousness, this first novel is a lyrical and stunning work with a quiet intensity that builds throughout the novel until you are left at the end wondering where your day went. It’s the story of Gemma, a 16-year-old British teenager who lives in London, who is kidnapped while on holiday with her parents.

But this isn’t a normal abduction and her captor, Ty, is no normal kidnapper. He spirits her away to the remote reaches of the Australian outback, far away from everything and everyone Gemma has ever known. Unlike many of the other abduction stories out there (including Meg Tilly’s Gemma), there is no sexual or physical abuse. What there is, for Gemma, is always the tension and the wondering — is he going to harm her? Can she trust him? What does he want? Why did he take her?

The answer to that last question takes up much of the book. Gemma was not a random victim. If Ty was going to take anyone, it was her.

All of this is set against the dry, dusty backdrop of the wilds of Australia. A place so foreign to Gemma that it might as well be Mars. Ty sees beauty in the land and we (the reader) and Gemma eventually do as well, but it’s a beauty with danger always lurking beneath the surface.

I liked this one quite a bit. It’s told in Gemma’s voice as a letter to her captor, Ty. She’s both strong and weak; in other words: realistic. She reacts to her situation in ways that I think many of us would react. The book explores her captivity and what it does to her, as well as the influences of Stockholm syndrome (where you come to identify and even look up to or love your captor). And it is, above all, a love letter to the wilds of Australia.

The publication date on this one is May 2010 for the US; it looks to have come out elsewhere in May 2009. Check it out. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.