The Little Friend

Hardback copy. 8vo. Pp. [x], 555, [xi]. Black cloth boards, lettered in copper to spine; cream endpapers. Jacket design by William Webb (priced at £16.99 net on the front flap).

Excised title-page, small triangular piece missing at fold of front pastedown/ endpaper, toned textblock edges, else Very Good.

Author's second novel, published a decade after her roman à clef debut, The Secret History (1992). Winner of the WH Smith Literary Award and shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2003. An exploration of crime and punishment in rural Mississippi as years after the horrific event, a precocious girl seeks out the murderer of her nine-year old brother, found hanging from an ancient black-tupelo tree in the family's back yard. Winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Goldfinch. "Destined to become a special kind of classic." –New York Times