Advanced Reading Copy, trade paperback, 326 pages, due to be released August 26, 2008

Synopsis:
Richly imagined, gothically spooky, and replete with the ingenious storytelling ability of a born novelist, The Good Thief introduces one of the most appealing young heroes in contemporary fiction and ratifies Hannah Tinti as one of our most exciting new talents.

Twelve year-old Ren is missing his left hand. How it was lost is a mystery that Ren has been trying to solve for his entire life, as well as who his parents are, and why he was abandoned as an infant at Saint Anthony’s Orphanage for boys. He longs for a family to call his own and is terrified of the day he will be sent alone into the world.

But then a young man named Benjamin Nab appears, claiming to be Ren’s long-lost brother, and his convincing tale of how Ren lost his hand and his parents persuades the monks at the orphanage to release the boy and to give Ren some hope. But is Benjamin really who he says he is? Journeying through a New England of whaling towns and meadowed farmlands, Ren is introduced to a vibrant world of hardscrabble adventure filled with outrageous scam artists, grave robbers, and petty thieves. If he stays, Ren becomes one of them. If he goes, he’s lost once again. As Ren begins to find clues to his hidden parentage he comes to suspect that Benjamin not only holds the key to his future, but to his past as well.

(My Amazon.com customer review of the book.)

What a charming book! Tinti may not have created an American masterpiece with this novel, but she certainly has written an enjoyable tale that can be enjoyed by both adults and younger readers.

Ren is a surprisingly captivating hero. A one-handed orphan abandoned as an infant at a Roman Catholic monastery (an anomaly in this largely Protestant New England), Ren grows up wishing for a soft, gentle mother who will fix him hearty meals and tuck him in to bed. What he gets is a grifter who poses as his older brother in order to adopt him, for a price, from the orphanage. When Benjamin Nab shows up with outrageous, wonderful tales of Ren's parents, Ren isn't sure if his dream of a family has come true or if he has landed in a nightmare. Ren, Benjamin, and Tom, an ex-teacher and tortured alcoholic, form a family of sorts, all the while scheming up the next plan to con some money out of the locals.

What Benjamin doesn't know is that Ren has always been a thief. Ren feels compelled to take certain objects (a book about the saints, a colorful stone), and he manages to fit right in with Benjamin and Tom. Their adventures bring them face-to-face with a man risen from the dead, a gangster-type mousetrap tycoon, a mysterious but tough harelip girl, a rooftop dwelling dwarf, a mostly deaf landlady, a quack of a dentist, and a doctor who will pay top dollar for the next corpse.

I couldn't help but cheer for Ren, and all through the story I wanted things to work out for him. It is this quality that I think makes Tinti's predictable story so charming and captivating. Ren is such a likeable character and his truer qualities of honesty and goodness come out once he is away from the monks and thrown in with thieves and murderers. Just like Dismas, Ren is hopeful and penitent and ultimately deserving of salvation.

There are elements of Dickens and Twain here, so the comparisons are probably inevitable. But this is a story that stands by itself. This is a charming, witty, and enjoyable book, and I would definitely recommend it to other readers.

Bookray! Mailing Order:

• nikel27 (Germany/Any)
  
• 24-7-365Reader (U.K./Any)
  
• Antimony (USA/Any)
  
• HunterRyu (USA/USA)
  
• blackadder75 (USA/USA or Canada)
  
• easterngirl71 (USA/USA)
  
• oi-reader (USA/USA)
  
• azuki (USA/USA)
  
• jeskawest (USA/any...thank you!)
  
• hyper7 (South Africa/any)

Book is here! Thanks to all who participated. :)

And it's on its way! I mailed the book to nikel27 on Oct. 17. Travel well, little book.

arrived safe at my house, will start reading soon

update:
Great read, thanks for sharing with me.
(Waiting for the address from the next member)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

EnJoy the book as I did.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2009

Arrived on Friday 16th, will read asap, thanks for sharing!

Firstly, apologies for taking a while to get round to this book, it took me a while to get into it, I had a couple of false starts and did think at one point that I would just send it onto the next person; however I did stick with it and sort of glad I did.... It wasn't my usual sort of read, and I probably wouldn't read it again, but on saying that it was an unusal story and I did get to like the main characters in the end, I can't really say much about the end as I don't want to spoil it for anyone else, but I was glad it ended as it did, as that's what I wanted for Ren. So all in all a nice tale, the sort of book that I could put down and pick up for a couple of pages at a time.

Thanks for sharing

Reserved for the next on the list :)

Arrived in the mail today. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Received this book safely. I look forward to reading it, but I have a couple to read in front,. I am sorry for the delay I will cause but I will definitely read and share as soon as I can. Thank you for letting me participate!

Reading this book now, sorry for the delay!

I finished this book a couple weeks ago but the motherboard had died on my laptop and i was unable to get online and journal until now. It was a wonderful story and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I was so surprised at the end when Ren made up his story but it wasn't really made up! Craziness! What a wonderfully colorful cast of characters. Thank you so much for sharing this with me, I will pass it along ASAP!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sorry for the delay, sending this out now. I hope the future readers enjoy the story as much as I did!

Got the book in yesterday's mail and will be reading next.

A really great book. This one definitely got my interest and kept it. I haven't had much reading time of late, but this book really made me want to make more time. I'm waiting on the next person's address and should have this off in the mail soon.

Got this book in the mail today!! Look forward to reading it. I will get to this book as soon as I can. I have a couple other ring/ray books to get through first. Thanks so much for understanding and sharing this book with me:)

Mysteriously arrived in the mail today. I had given up on this ring, but am glad it is still travelling!

Unfortunately I have had 2 rings appear in the past week and it may take me a bit to get to The Good Thief, but i will read and get it moving soon. Thanks for including me!

A very magical read. Ren was charming and I was rooting for him from the begining! The story was captivating, often I did not want to put the book down because I wanted to see where Ren's adventure took him next. I have been reading quite a bit of non-fiction lately and this book was just what I needed to flip my interest in fiction.

Many thanks for including me in this ring. Am sending off to azuki as soon as I log out!

On it's way to Azuki! I hope you enjoy it was much as I did :)

Thanks, book has arrived safely.
I have a few books to read first but I have been wanting to read this for a while so be assured I'll start on it as soon as I can!!

This is a charming story that most certainly reminds me of Dickens, especially Oliver Twist. Like any orphan, Ren dreams of finding out who his mother is, and his adventure outside the orphanage brings him to meet a variety of colorful characters, and a few times what he thinks is the truth of his identity.

Thanks for sharing such a delightful tale, and I will mail this out as soon as I get the address from jeskawest.

ETA: 9/18 - haven't heard fm jeskawest. pm sent again.

Got this in the mail today. Looking forward to reading it!!

I really enjoyed this book - it was constantly surprising me with the choices the characters made and the places the author took them. Really the whole book was very unexpected for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved Ren, as it seemed everyone around him did, and sometimes I would despair over where his fate seemed to be taking him. But this is a fantastic adventure story, very enjoyable all around.

Finally got this one on its way to hyper7. Enjoy!!

Thank you very much to jeskawest and mellion108. It is going on the TBR pile and then off to somewhere else.

Eventually got around to reading this, and I loved it!
Thanks very much, I will release it into the wild ASAP.