The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau

The novel uses the folklore legend of Robin Hood to center its theme about resisting injustice, which becomes the code of honor that motivates Annabel Clement and Colette. This compulsion expands to the acts of resistance carried out by French citizens during the Nazi occupation, designed to resist programs of genocide that targeted Jewish people and others. The novel upholds the argument that adhering to a moral code of equality and fairness is more important than obedience to the law.

The first chapter with Colette, set in the 2018 timeline, introduces her conviction that punishing an evil doer by stealing their riches is a moral good, if not an imperative. Colette reasons that if Linda Clyborn supports neo-Nazi groups which Colette finds repugnant, Linda deserves to have valuable items stolen from her. Colette further justifies her actions with suspicions that Linda has dealt unfairly with the children of her late husband. Colette adheres to her mother’s teaching: “If you can take from people who are cruel and unkind and use what you’ve taken to make the world a better place, then what you have done is heroic, not criminal” (14). Colette considers her motives pure because she doesn’t intend to personally gain from the theft; rather, she plans to put the funds toward support of the Boston Center for Holocaust Education, which she sees as a fitting use of Linda Clyborn’s riches.