Thieves

by Janice Kulyk Keefer

IN THIS EVOCATIVE NOVEL, Janice Kulyk Keefer beautifully imagines Katherine Mansfield’s brief but brilliant life through the desires and the passions of her readers. 
    In 1986, shortly before the centenary of Mansfield’s birth, Monty, a disillusioned New Zealand scholar, impulsively steals a letter intended for his writer-father. Intrigued by the letter’s offer of new Mansfield material, Monty is inspired to try to redeem his failed career. Arcing gracefully from New Zealand to Europe to Chicago and finally to Windsor, Ontario, Thieves is at once a brilliant mystery, an absorbing love story and a haunting study of what makes us whole.

Genres: Fiction

317 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

She is a Canadian novelist and poet.

Born in Toronto, she studied literature at universities in England and France. She teaches literature and theatre in the graduate studies department at the University Of Guelph.

Of Ukrainian heritage, Janice often writes about the experiences of first-generation Canadian children of immigrants. Her sister is the Canadian artist, Karen Kulyk.

Reviews

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Thieves is a clever, dissembling, genre-busting tumult of a novel.” — Ottawa Citizen—
I couldn’t agree more. It could be nothing less considering the short, haphazard, tragic life of Katherine Mansfield.
I think it was a brilliant approach as the author wove the stories of the people researching the life of the main character into the fabric of the memoir. I was almost tempted to give up due to the challenge of the circuitous plot. However it turned out to be very worthwhile to finish the book.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Janice Kulyk Keefer's historical novel Thieves is based on the frightening but exciting
life of writer Katherine Mansfield. This woman lived life on the edge, hanging on to her wish to
write by her fingernails and getting into many unsavory situations. A friend and rival of Virginia Woolf, she persues the literary intelligencia of London and often uses shock value to get attention.
She travels as many did in those days to Italy and France following the 'artistic' crowd as a hanger on as well as a person of interest. Most of the things she did were done from fear of never being appreciated for her brilliance. She dies alone of tuberculosis.. people thought it was contagious and her friends abandoned her. This book is written as a novel about a man who discovers some of her manuscripts and through them recognizes his own path of ambition and is forced to take a second look at his life. I love the way Keefer wraps fiction around biography. Ingenious.