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The Good Thief | 
 enlarge | Author: Hannah Tinti
Publisher: The Dial Press
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $14.23
You Save: $10.77 (43%)
New (44) Used (11) from $14.00
Rating:  110 reviews
Sales Rank: 7490
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 0385337450
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780385337458
ASIN: 0385337450
Publication Date: August 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20090107232017T
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 105 more reviews...
 Dickens style tale December 23, 2008
The author is trying to write a Charles Dickens Gothic tall tale with lots of unsavory characters. There is lots of drama and mystery with orphans, abuse, greed, stealing and murders, as well as a few caring people in between. A good, fast read for the beach, airport or plane. I immediately donated my copy to the local library, as it is not one I will re-read or pass along to friends or family.
Karen
Good but not perfect adventure December 14, 2008
This book presents a grand adventure in the Dickension tradition, with orphans, thieves, and evildoers of various kinds. It takes place in New England some time in the 19th century, and involves an 11-year-old orphan boy who's missing one hand. The story itself is gripping, the characters complex and interesting, and the writing is excellent. Overall, I enjoyed it very much. However, I do have a couple of complaints. First, some of the imagery and themes were overdone (just how many drowned people does a book need??). And second, some of the plot twists were entirely too coincidental. Still, it's a good story and I recommend it.
Ill-defined characters and a boring plot December 9, 2008
It only takes a few points to make a novel worth reading... characters you care about, a well-described setting, and some kind of interesting conflict. Unfortunately, "The Good Thief" has none of these. The characters are poorly developed and I assume we are supposed to develop sympathy for them because of their missing hand or their "harelip" (an offensive term the author continually uses to describe one character). The setting is confused as it isn't clear when the story takes place. We are told that shotguns are common which would place it in the period after the Civil War but one character is described as being a member of the American Society of Dental Surgeons, an organization the ceased to exist in 1856. But another character is described as wearing a powdered wig which would place it even earlier. The idea that orphans who are not adopted are drafted into an army where they have little future seems even more absurd for anytime in 19th century New England outside of the Civil War. But the greatest defect is that nothing really happens. The characters wander around a poorly described New England and occasionally steal something.
There is a basis for a good story somewhere in the book. The idea of an orphan being adopted by a con-man, thief in order to help him steal is not a bad idea for a story. But this book simply fails to make anything out of the story. The writing simply lacks the excitement or even the descriptive language that could take this story somewhere. Perhaps I am not the target audience for this book but I found it a difficult struggle to get through and can not recommend it.
 a good story December 3, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
How do you tell a story? First sentence: "The man arrived after morning prayers." In this first paragraph, we are there with the man, his horse, and the boys. "The man waited, and the boys watched..." The second paragraph drops back to explain: "Men often came for children." There were some boys more likely to be chosen. There were others more likely to be passed over. "Ren was one of them." The third paragraph continues: "He had no memory of a beginning..."
If you want to read a good story, The Good Thief, by Hannah Tinti, is the book for you. It is a solid, old-fashioned story-as in, something happens and then something else and then something else. On December 1, it won the 2008 John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize.
In a New York Times review, The Good Thief was described as "an American Dickensian tale with touches of Harry Potterish whimsy, along with a macabre streak of spooky New England history."
I couldn't put it down.
An unexpected tale of gothic adventure December 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was pleasantly surprised by this gothic story about a one-handed boy named Ren, who is raised in a Catholic orphanage and adopted by a con artist mere months before his caretakers planned to consign him to the army. Although the monks question why anyone would want to adopt a boy with only one hand, Ren's savior, Benjamin Nab, weaves a convincing tale about Ren being his long lost brother who lost his hand when their family was attacked by indians. Benjamin saved him and placed the infant at the orphanage gates before heading off avenge their slaughtered family, which explains why it's only now that Benjamin has been able to return for the boy. The story isn't true - Benjamin is a con artist, after all - but the monks believe him and Ren's adventures with a dark world of schemes, ruthless mousetrap-manufacturing barons, chimney-dwelling dwarves and black-market doctors begins. He learns to lie and swindle with the best of them, yet never loses sight of his innate goodness, which reveals itself in untimely prayers and even a desire to save the soul of a murder unearthed during a grave digging expedition. Overall this 19th century New England tale is an unexpected and enchanting tale of gothic adventure.
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