The Good Thief/Review
Saturday, September 12, 2009
It would not be possible to say just how much I loved Hannah Tinti's The Good Thief, though if I told you that it sits directly beside The Book Thief in my estimation, you would perhaps begin to understand.
It's the sort of novel I wish I knew how to write—a straightforward, plot-rich escapade about a one-handed boy on the lam from the orphanage from which he has been taken by a story-spouting graveyard robber, who isn't half as bad as that description makes him seem. One thing in this book directly leads to another with language so pure and alive that I wanted to do nothing else yesterday but lie beneath a blanket with this book in hand.
Tinti demonstrates, in The Good Thief, a perfect ear for timing, an incredible knack for creating original characters, and a huge heart. The book feels Dickensian, but somehow modern, too. It is set in the crumb and crumble of mousetrap factories and grimy pubs and cadaver-brewing hospitals, and yet there's so much light in it, too. Ren, our hero, is on a journey. He has Saint Anthony on his side, not to mention a cabal of secondary characters who are hardly secondary.
Published for adults, this is classic YA material, too, demanding to be read (read? consumed!) by all ages. I know that I'll be buying extra copies for nieces and nephews quite soon.
