The Little Friend

By: Donna Tartt

Narrated by: Donna Tartt

Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The hugely anticipated new novel by the author of The Secret History—a best-seller nationwide and around the world, and one of the most astonishing debuts in recent times—The Little Friend is even more transfixing and resonant.

In a small Mississippi town, Harriet Cleve Dusfresnes grows up in the shadow of her brother, who—when she was only a baby—was found hanging dead from a black-tupelo tree in their yard. His killer was never identified, nor has his family, in the years since, recovered from the tragedy.

For Harriet, who has grown up largely unsupervised, in a world of her own imagination, her brother is a link to a glorious past she has only heard stories about or glimpsed in photograph albums. Fiercely determined, precocious far beyond her twelve years, and steeped in the adventurous literature of Stevenson, Kipling, and Conan Doyle, she resolves, one summer, to solve the murder and exact her revenge. Harriet’s sole ally in this quest, her friend Hely, is devoted to her, but what they soon encounter has nothing to do with child’s play: it is dark, adult, and all too menacing.

A revelation of familial longing and sorrow, The Little Friend explores crime and punishment, as well as the hidden complications and consequences that hinder the pursuit of truth and justice. A novel of breathtaking ambition and power, it is rich in moral paradox, insights into human frailty, and storytelling brilliance.

©2002 Donna Tartt (P)2002 Random House Inc., Random House Audio, a Division of Random House Inc.

Critic reviews

"This extraordinary book [has] a main character, a twelve-year-old girl named Harriet Cleve Dufresnes, who ranks up there with Huck Finn, Miss Havisham, Quentin Compson, and Philip Marlowe, fictional characters who don't seem in the least fictional . . . If To Kill a Mockingbird is the childhood that everyone wanted and no one really had, The Little Friend is childhood as it is, by turns enchanting and terrifying."--Malcolm Jones, Newsweek

"Readers are easily swept up in [a] darkly comic novel that . . . broadens to examine Southern racial and social strata, religious and generational eccentricities, and the passion of youth that gives way to the ambivalence of age. At times humorous, at times heartbreaking, The Little Friend is most surprising when it is edge-of-your-seat scary." --Dennis Moore, USA Today

"A sprawling story of vengeance, told in a rich, controlled voice . . . Tartt has written a grownup book that captures the dark, Lord of the Flies side of childhood and classic children's literature." --James Poniewozik, Time

Couldn't put it down!

(Can you say that about an audiobook?) I don't understand the negative reviews of this, my boyfriend and I brought it along on a trip to Montreal and found it fascinating. Maybe you need a long stretch of time to listen to it. Donna Tartt has a wonderful reading voice with an ear for accents that brings every character to life. The story is a very moving coming-of-age tale with a lot of touches of dark humor that make for a compulsively listenable story.

Almost Great

This book held my interest and was very well written until the ending suddenly came. The problem was it wasn't an ending. The book just stopped.

A little unfinished for my taste.

Love Donna Tartt as she's is an artist. Her books are fully developed as was this one. However, the ending left me wanting more...a last chapter, an epilogue or perhaps part 2.

Good (audio)Book !

I see all those negative reviews, I for one enjoyed the audio cd. It being read by the author is I believe a nice plus too.

Very enjoyable

Donna Tartt has a voice that so perfectly matches this book. I read it right after the Secret History, so it was hard for me to switch gears as it is different from her other characters, but once I settled in I enjoyed this book very much. It is well done!

A very abridged version of the original

I got so annoyed by the narrator of the full 25h unabridged of “The Little Friend “ that I switched to this audiobook. The author’s narration is much smoother and I was quite pleased by the first part of the book. That is, until the departure of Ida. The other part is less enjoyable,: somewhat convoluted and confusing. As for as the denouement, it is really unacceptably lame. Harriet may be satisfaite, but I don’t buy it. Compared to “The secret History” I was terribly disappointed.

ABRIDGED MEANS SHORTEN

This audiobook is shorten to 6 hours rather than the entire 20 hours. If you would rather go about this than listen to the entire audiobook, I would recommend you review chapter summaries on Google because this audio cuts out plenty of important details that are key to the plot.

Skip It, Read The Goldfinch

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The audiobook was well-narrated and the author's vaguely accented southern voice for me, contributed to the authenticity of the novel. Altogether, however, the novel felt unsatisfactory. Having read her other two books, The Goldfinch (winner of a Pulitzer) and The Secret History (which she wrote in college, and initially garnered her attention from readers), I felt that The Little Friend was lackluster and disappointing, especially in juxtaposition.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I was disappointed. I felt the ending gave us no conclusion to the story, the book more or less just "stopped".

Well crafted, but plot strains credulity

As usual, the book is well written, but the characters seem purposely too much like the kids in To Kill a Mockingbird. The plotlines with the snakes and the high death toll was too melodramatic. Fun to listen to, but it's no where near the caliber of The Goldfinch.

Disappointed

Slow, very slow, with an annoying story deficiency. Beautiful descriptions of details, feelings and places, but that isn?t quite enough to keep me listening.