Book summary

Donna Tartt's long-awaited second novel (published 10 years after THE SECRET HISTORY) begins with the murder of a 9-year-old boy, which is never solved. Twelve years later, the family is still stunned and bereft, stuck in time--except for Harriet, the boy's younger sister, who is convinced she knows who committed the crime and intends to expose the killer--and perhaps, in the process, some unsavory episodes in her family's history. Set in a small Southern town, THE LITTLE FRIEND is a long, Dickensian novel that also owes a debt to classic 19th-century adventure stories. A New York Times Notable Book for 2002.

Media reviews

"THE LITTLE FRIEND...turns out to be a far more emotionally resonant novel than its predecessor, and a much less satisfying thriller: awkwardly plotted, if keenly observed, and speckled with glittering set pieces that do not add up to a persuasive whole. It is a kind of changeling creature, neither caterpillar nor moth but something still in chrysalis, waiting to be born. At its best, it attests to the maturation of the author's voice and her willingness to push her gifts in an ambitious new direction....At its worst, it feels like a Frankenstein of a book, a lumpish collection of mismatched parts that even the author's virtuosic talents cannot transform into a coherent whole."