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The Little Friend
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 24 hrs and 22 mins
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The Little Friend
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Summary
The second novel by Donna Tartt, best-selling author of The Goldfinch (winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize), The Little Friend is a grandly ambitious and utterly riveting novel of childhood, innocence and evil.
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.
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Editor reviews
Critic reviews
"Beautifully written and immaculately crafted ... even though there's humour, the tension is palpable. Unputdownable” ( Daily Mirror)
"Harriet is one of the most engaging and rounded characters you are likely to find ... gorgeous, fluent, visual." ( The Times)
What listeners say about The Little Friend
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Stylo
- 18-01-16
Beautiful writing, but boring story
Is there anything you would change about this book?
The plot!
If you’ve listened to books by Donna Tartt before, how does this one compare?
Her book the GoldFinch is much better.
If this book were a film would you go see it?
No, it is the wonderful writing that kept me listening not the story at all!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A. Banner
- 28-10-15
Not what I was expecting
Great story very engaging found myself looking for to each journey in the car for the next instalment.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- RH
- 21-05-17
A friend indeed...
Beautifully written, hypnotic and lyrical and a superb narrator. I am a bit frustrated at the ending but this would not stop me recommending this audio book overall.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cogito Ergo Sometimes
- 11-11-22
Wonderful
Beautifully written and read. I read it when it came out and I've relay enjoyed listening this week. It is brilliant.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- DR Burden
- 01-06-24
Disappointing
A second novel, like a second album or second anything, is hard. The Secret History is, rightly, well regarded as one of the finest debut novels of all time.
But The Little Friend, barely spoken about at all really, is an over long and overblown story, that aims to be about childhood and long summers, all entwined in a murder mystery, and is ultimately a bore
Nothing wrong with the voice performance here, or the actual quality of the writing, there's simply not enough plot to sustain the story, and it doesn't help that every single character is uniquely unpleasant in their own way, making it hard to support or care for any of them.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- SCR
- 20-07-15
EXCELLENT
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Definitely - this was a gripping well written book - with excellent characters
Who was your favorite character and why?
Hariet
Which scene did you most enjoy?
Gum & the cobra
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Marilyn Thompson
- 17-05-15
Southern atmosphere and vivid introspection
A visceral evocation of interior lives and the impact of imagination on the world around us. skilfully narrated. Really absorbing.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cornish Kiwi
- 11-12-19
Great story beautifully told
Really enjoyed this book, it absorbed me in the time the book is set. Great narration too
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Heisenberg
- 13-10-19
Interesting characters, wonderfully rich setting
I came to this after listening to The Goldfinch, which I loved, and while this was a very different story, it was once again very enjoyable. Lots of interesting characters, a wonderfully rich setting, and a class narrator. A little meandering at times, but a good rewarding listen, to which I was always happy to rejoin.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- EmmaM
- 23-02-22
Gorgeously written
Really loved the first third of this book but then I don’t know what happened.I feel left dangling, trying to make sense of it all. Beautifully written and performed but ultimately I think it needed editing down by 40%
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