The Little Friend

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The Little Friend is Donna Tartt's second novel. It was first published in October 2002, a decade after the publication of her first novel, The Secret History. Many speculated the reason for the large gap between her first and second novels being a result of Donna Tartt having writer's block, which the author denies.

The Little Friend is, at least superficially, a mystery adventure, told from the point of view of a young girl living in the American South in the mid-20th century; her implicit anxieties about the long-unexplained death of her brother and the dynamics of her extended family are a strong focus of the novel, as are portrayals of the lifestyles and customs of a contrasting set of characters.

The novel won the WH Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2003.