Theft

''Every volume [Rachel Ingalls] has written displays the craft of a quite remarkable talent. Tales of love, terror, betrayal and grief, which others would spin out for hundreds of pages, are given the occluded force of poetry.'' Amanda Craig, Independent

Rachel Ingalls (b. 1940) grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has lived in London since 1965. Theft, her literary debut, won the Authors'' Club First Novel Award for 1970.

''Theft is a parable-parallel taking place in some dehumanizing, militarized society where Seth, a starving working man, is jailed for stealing a loaf of bread. In prison with him is a manic-messiah, a wife-killer, some affluent youngsters doing their ''mental slumming'' via protest, and his protective, smarter brother-in-law.'' Kirkus Review

''Imaginative and intelligent''. Sunday Times

''Tautly told with great power.'' Sunday Mirror