The Little Friend: A Novel

Donna Tartt

Oct 2011 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Goldfinch comes an utterly riveting novel set in Mississippi of childhood, innocence, and evil. •  “Destined to become a special kind of classic.” —The New York Times Book Review

The setting is Alexandria, Mississippi, where one Mother’s Day a little boy named Robin Cleve Dufresnes was found hanging from a tree in his parents’ yard. Twelve years later Robin’s murder is still unsolved and his family remains devastated. So it is that Robin’s sister Harriet—unnervingly bright, insufferably determined, and unduly influenced by the fiction of Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson--sets out to unmask his killer. Aided only by her worshipful friend Hely, Harriet crosses her town’s rigid lines of race and caste and burrows deep into her family’s history of loss. Filled with hairpin turns of plot and “a bustling, ridiculous humanity worthy of Dickens” (The New York Times Book Review), The Little Friend is a work of myriad enchantments by a writer of prodigious talent.

Ratings and reviews

Just finished reading. Good story. Now I need to think back on all of the characters and settings. I wonder if H & H married or gradually parted ways completely visiting from time to time.

This story sticks with you. A huge fan of a secret history, TLF was not my favorite... the first time through. Each time I read it, I like it more and more. Donna Tart is unmatched in her ability to create story lines and characters that stick with you.

Ever hear a great song that ends with a lazy fadeout? It was just like that.

About the author

DONNA TARTT won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her most recent Novel. The Goldfinch Her novels The Secret History and The Little Friend were also international bestsellers. She was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, and is a graduate of Bennington College.