Newbery Medal winning fantasy, set in a world not unlike Ancient Greece, complete with interfering Gods and Goddesses.
The King's magus believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure - Hamiathe's Gift. To attain it, he needs a skillful thief and he selects Gen from the King's prison. The magus is only interested in the thief's abilities; what Gen is interested in is anyone's guess.
A likeable rogue, Gen endures the difficult trek with much complaining and little grace, but shows his mettle when he steals the Gift twice and risks his life for his companions.
The Thief is an exciting and compelling 'road-movie' story, with a cracking twist at the end which surprises both the magus and Gen's travelling companions - not to mention the reader!!
Megan Whalen Turner is married to a professor and often relocates when he needs to do research. When they travelled to Greece one summer, she decided to use its landscape as the background of a book, but didn't write The Thief until she was spending a year in California, where the olive trees reminded her of the Greek mainland.
Title: The Thief
Author: Megan Whalen Turner
ISBN: 9780007121755
Binding:
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: 2001-09-03
Number of Pages: 240
Weight: 0.1180 kg
[Gen] is the freshest and funniest hero to tumble through a fantasy novel for many years.
Independent on Sunday
From the believable characters to the well-realized setting, this fantasy offers a refreshing change of pace for readers who enjoy adventure stories with a touch of magic.
Booklist
This is an uplifting book, a literary journey that enriches both its characters and readers before it is over.
Kirkus Reviews
A tantalizing, suspenseful, exceptionally clever novel ... The author's characterization of Gen is simply superb: she lets the reader know so much about him - his sense of humor, his egotism, his loyalty, his forthrightness, his tendency to sulk - and yet manages to hide the most essential information. Which is not to say that either Gen or Turner deceives the reader: both tell part of the truth at all times. And so, unlike many other novels of surprise, which don't bear up to a second reading, Thief is even more fun to reread - you can see all the clues to Gen's identity and mission, and delight in the author's ingenuity.
Horn Book
