The Good Thief

The pitch-black nights and scuttling leaves of autumn make for prime reading weather. Over the gloomy weekend, I tucked into The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti and was transported to a grim 19th-century orphanage in a dark New England town.

There we find twelve-year-old Ren being passed up for adoption. He’s too young for field work, too old to be adorable, and missing a hand. Ren’s story unfolds when a spirited grifter posing as his brother whisks him away, knowing that Ren’s pitiful deformity will open more wallets than a gun.

It’s a briskly-paced novel with suprising turns and a cast of scoundrels, grifters, murderers, outcasts and victims straight out of a Charles Dickens novel. Hannah Tinti’s writing has been compared to Dickens, and to Robert Louis Stevenson. It’s high praise for a first-time novelist. Hannah Tinti grew up in Salem, Massachusetts. Her story collection, Animal Crackers, has sold in sixteen countries and was a runner up for the PEN/Hemingway award. She is co-founder and editor-in-chief of One Story magazine.

Click here to read the first chapter of The Good Thief

And if The Good Thief doesn’t get you in the mood for the macabre, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Alu just might. She creates ambient soundscapes for her captivating fantasy stories about casket salesmen and circus cosmos. Producer John Diliberto brings us this profile, as part of the series Echo Location: Soundings For New Music.