The Good Thief (novel)
Encyclopedia
"The Good Thief," by Hannah Tinti
is a novel published in 2008 by The Dial Press.
Tinti's first novel, "The Good Thief" is the story of an orphan named Ren who is adopted by a pair of gentleman rogues in early American New England and led willingly into a life of crime. Ren, who is missing his left hand, is taught to lie, steal and run confidence games by his new mentor, Benjamin Nab, and they travel to the city of North Umbridge, where a mousetrap factory owner reigns supreme using his army of hired thugs ("hat boys") and the unmarried, dowdy girls who work in the factory ("mousetrap girls").
Featuring giants, dwarfs, evil doctors, deaf landladies, crass industrialists, unlucky twins, and sympathetic clergy, "The Good Thief" is a New England grotesquerie, and closely follows the twisting of Ren's mind as he learns to trust himself and depend on his new family. Dickensian in its insistence on the power of the human spirit triumphing over all adversity, "The Good Thief" gives new magic to early American life, and argues that lovable freaks have always been the quintessential American tableau.
"The Good Thief" is the winner of the American Library Association
's Alex Award and the John Sargent Sr.
First Novel Prize.
Hannah Tinti
Hannah Tinti is an American writer and the editor of One Story magazine.Her first novel, The Good Thief, published in 2008, received the American Library Association's Alex Award and the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. She also published a short story collection, Animal Crackers, which was...
is a novel published in 2008 by The Dial Press.
Tinti's first novel, "The Good Thief" is the story of an orphan named Ren who is adopted by a pair of gentleman rogues in early American New England and led willingly into a life of crime. Ren, who is missing his left hand, is taught to lie, steal and run confidence games by his new mentor, Benjamin Nab, and they travel to the city of North Umbridge, where a mousetrap factory owner reigns supreme using his army of hired thugs ("hat boys") and the unmarried, dowdy girls who work in the factory ("mousetrap girls").
Featuring giants, dwarfs, evil doctors, deaf landladies, crass industrialists, unlucky twins, and sympathetic clergy, "The Good Thief" is a New England grotesquerie, and closely follows the twisting of Ren's mind as he learns to trust himself and depend on his new family. Dickensian in its insistence on the power of the human spirit triumphing over all adversity, "The Good Thief" gives new magic to early American life, and argues that lovable freaks have always been the quintessential American tableau.
"The Good Thief" is the winner of the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
's Alex Award and the John Sargent Sr.
John Turner Sargent
John Turner Sargent, Sr. was president and CEO of the Doubleday and Company publishing house from 1963 to 1978, taking over from the previous president, Douglas Black....
First Novel Prize.
Reviews
- "The Good Thief: A Review" at The Fiction CircusThe Fiction CircusThe Fiction Circus is a Brooklyn-based online literary magazine that currently publishes short fiction and essays on the arts. The group also holds staged multimedia fiction readings accompanied by electronic music and incorporating visual art and theater as a frame narrative...
- "Some Dissembling Required" at The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
- "An Orphan Becomes a Novice Grave Robber and Unearths Some Surprises" at The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
- "Great Expectations" at The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
- "The Good Thief" at Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
- "Hannah Tinti's 'Good Thief': twist on Dickens" at The San Francisco Chronicle
- ""The Good Thief": Coming of age with some seedy role models" at The Seattle TimesThe Seattle TimesThe Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...