Hannah Tinti's first novel, The Good Thief, is published in the U.S. by The Dial Press,, and in the UK and Australia by Headline.

Read/Listen/watch an excerpt of The Good Thief
Read a Q&A with Hannah Tinti about The Good Thief

About the Book

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.

Twelve 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.

News

  • Finalist for John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize.
  • Indie Next list for September 2008.
  • Borders Original Voices pick for September 2008.
  • Featured Alternate of Book-of-the Month Club, Quality Paperback Book Club, and The Literary Guild.
  • Foreign Rights to The Good Thief have been sold in eleven countries.

    Reviews

  • "The effect of Tinti's steady, authoritative style is to make odd and extraordinary events seem natural: if she says there are hat boys and mousetrap girls, there are... Writing for adults while keeping to a child's perspective isn't easy, and Tinti makes it look effortless. And it is a book for adults, in addition to being the kind of story that might have kept you reading all day when you were home sick from school."--Maile Maloy, The New York Times Book Review.

  • "The perfect autumn read...Tinti's prose is compulsively readable, straightforward yet filled with rich, striking detail that transports the reader to the distinctive world she has created."--Boulder Daily News

  • "Hannah Tinti's debut novel, The Good Thief, is a refreshing fairy tale, a delightful piece with both Charles Dickens and J.K. Rowling at heart."--Philadelphia Inquirer

  • "Reminds you of why you fell in love with reading in the first place."--Julie Wittes Schlack, The Boston Globe

  • "Hannah Tinti's novel The Good Thief has all the makings of a classic."--Meghan Ward, San Francisco Chronicle

  • "It may be too quaint to imagine there are still families reading aloud together at night (so many Web sites, so little time), but if you're out there, consider Hannah Tinti's charming first novel."--Ron Charles, Washington Post

  • "[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."-Janet Maslin, NY Times

  • "Tinti secures her place as one of the sharpest, slyest young American novelists."--Entertainment Weekly

  • "One of the freshest, most beguiling narratives this side of Oliver Twist."--O:The Oprah Magazine

  • "[Tinti] is an original and talented writer, with a sharp eye for the freakish and absurd and an ability to go straight to the heart of the America she depicts."--Sydney Morning Herald

  • "The Good Thief is a lively tale with nearly nonstop action and unpredictable twists. The reader is rewarded with a slam-bang finish rooted strongly in characterization and clever plotting."--Winston-Salem Journal

  • "In her highly original debut novel, [Tinti] renders the horrors and wonders she concocts utterly believable and rich in implication as she creates a darkly comedic and bewitching, sinister yet life-affirming tale about the eternal battle between good and evil."
    -Booklist, Starred Review (Donna Seaman)

  • "Marvelously satisfying hokum, rich with sensory details, surprising twists and living, breathing characters to root for."
    -Kirkus, Starred Review

  • "Tough to beat."-Publisher's Weekly

  • "a confident whirl of a read, with pathos and drama nicely juxtaposed. Proper storytelling, in fact.
    -The Guardian

  • "solid, traditional storytelling...well-drawn, evocative characters and fantastical imagination."
    -London Metro

  • "Four Stars. Much-trumpeted debut novel featuring Ren, a one-handed orphan in 19th-Century New England. When rugged stranger Benjamin Nab takes charge of the lad, claiming to be his brother, Ren is soon left wondering just where the truth lies."
    -The Mirror

    • Advance Praise for The Good Thief

    “Hannah Tinti has written a lighting strike of a novel—beautiful and haunting and ever so bright. She is a 21st century Robert Louis Stevenson, an adventuress who lays bare her characters' hearts with a precision and a fearlessness that will leave you shaken."
    ~Junot Diaz, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

    "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. That masterpieces don't come along very often only makes it more wonderful to experience."
    ~Elizabeth Gilbert, Bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love

    "THE GOOD THIEF is a book that deserves comparison to the work of classic authors like Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Dickens--not only because it's a remarkable piece of work, but also because it reminded me of what it used to be like, when I was a kid, to be truly engrossed in a book. You lift your head and hours have passed, and you realize that you've been utterly drawn into a world that is as vivid and real as your own. A masterful achievement."
    ~Dan Chaon, National Book Award finalist and author of Among the Missing and You Remind Me of Me

    "THE GOOD THIEF is a magical book. Everything worth writing about is in it: love, death and—more than anything else—family. I wish I'd written it.”
    ~Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish and Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician

    “Hannah Tinti writes with uncommon grace and stunning insight. Her quirky tribe of outcasts will break into your dreams and steal your spirit. Surrender to them! Let your heart be broken! Only then will you know the tender thrill of their wild companionship.”
    ~Melanie Rae Thon, author of Iona Moon and First, Body

    “Hannah Tinti's novel THE GOOD THIEF is wry, wise, deeply felt and ingeniously plotted, a wonderful, riveting spin on the tale of abandoned boys gone bad, or good, or both. Move over Huck Finn and Oliver Twist, make room for Ren, The Good Thief's one-handed but quick-fingered and witted orphan, thief, hero—I loved him, and his book.”
    ~Brock Clarke, author of An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England

    “THE GOOD THIEF is a dark, Dickensian fable filled with enough surprises to keep a reader turning pages long past midnight. Irresistibly strange, and just plain irresistible.”
    ~Karl Iagnemma, author of The Expeditions

    "Think Hawthorne crossed with George Romero, or Twain with Stephen King. By turns grisly, comic, and tender, THE GOOD THIEF is a great, great novel."
    ~Justin Cronin, Pen-Hemingway award winner and author of Mary and O’Neill and The Summer Guest

    "Wildly inventive and surprising, Hannah Tinti's extraordinary first novel stands in a class with Geek Love and The World According to Garp."
    ~Kate Walbert, National Book Award finalist and author of Our Kind and The Gardens of Kyoto

    "This wonderfully old-fashioned novel, rendered with great heart and imagination, demonstrates that Hannah Tinti's talents are as awe-inspiring as the story she tells. Tinti is a formidable writer, and THE GOOD THIEF is a stay-up-all-night sort of read."
    ~Brady Udall, author of The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint