The Good Thief: A Novel
by By Tinti, Hannah
Category: Fiction , Historical , General

Richly imagined, gothically spooky, and replete with the ingenious storytelling  ability of a born novelist, The Good Thief introduces one of the most appealing young  heroes in contemporary fiction and ratifies Hannah Tinti as one of our most exciting  new talents. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post  • San Francisco Chronicle • Kirkus ReviewsWinner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and an American Library Association Alex AwardTwelve year-old Ren is missing his left hand. How it was lost is a  mystery that Ren has been trying to solve for his entire life, as well as who his  parents are, and why he was abandoned as an infant at Saint Anthony’s Orphanage for  boys. He longs for a family to call his own and is terrified of the day he will be  sent alone into the world.But then a young man named Benjamin Nab appears, claiming  to be Ren’s long-lost brother, and his convincing tale of how Ren lost his hand and  his parents persuades the monks at the orphanage to release the boy and to give Ren  some hope. But is Benjamin really who he says he is? Journeying through a New England  of whaling towns and meadowed farmlands, Ren is introduced to a vibrant world of  hardscrabble adventure filled with outrageous scam artists, grave robbers, and petty  thieves. If he stays, Ren becomes one of them. If he goes, he’s lost once again.  As Ren begins to find clues to his hidden parentage he comes to suspect that Benjamin  not only holds the key to his future, but to his past as well. Praise for The Good Thief"Every once in a while—if you are very lucky—you come upon a novel so marvelous and enchanting and rare that you wish everyone in the world would read it, as well. The Good Thief is just such a book—a beautifully composed work of literary magic."—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love"Darkly transporting . . . [In] The Good Thief, the reader can find plain-spoken fiction full of traditional virtues: strong plotting, pure lucidity, visceral momentum and a total absence of writerly mannerisms. In Ms. Tinti’s case that means an American Dickensian tale with touches of Harry Potterish whimsy, along with a macabre streak of spooky New England history."—New York Times