As a young child Tartt memorised lengthy poems by A.A. Her father, Don, and mother, Taylor, were both bookworms – the latter to the extent that she would read while driving – and passed down this passion to their eldest daughter.

She grew up surrounded by elderly family members, including a number of aunts, reminiscent of those in The Little Friend, who told her stories, spoke in a secret language and talked to cats. Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1963, and credits the southern love of storytelling with sparking her interest in creating narratives.

As production on the much-anticipated film version of The Goldfinch starring Ansel Elgort is confirmed for 2018 – the first cinematic interpretation of any of her books, Tartt having kept the rights to The Secret History famously under lock and key – we present a comprehensive guide to the self-proclaimed “hermit about town”, breaking down the elements that define her practice, from her key inspirations and influences to her unique working process and distinct sense of personal style. And as it famously takes her a decade to craft each meticulously realised tome – her sophomore work The Little Friend, about a murdered child and his sister’s misguided quest for revenge, was released in 2002, followed by The Goldfinch in 2013, the exquisite odyssey of an orphaned boy named Theo Decker and a stolen Dutch masterpiece – the opportunities to explore the inner-workings of her scrupulous imagination have been few and far between.Īs such, the author has been the subject of frequent hearsay, from speculations on her supposed celibacy to rumours of reclusiveness or breakdowns, but watch any of the interviews with her online and you will find the singular creative expounding freely on her processes and preoccupations (if not her private life) with the all of the eloquence and poeticism so present in her books. But although her literary creations are richly expansive, Tartt herself remains largely mysterious since the release of her brilliant debut novel, the beguiling, college-based ‘whydunnit’ The Secret History in 1992, she has kept a pointedly low-profile, only giving interviews and speaking at public events in the immediate aftermath of a new novel’s release.

All fiction should be immersive, but reading a novel by American author Donna Tartt is like entering a parallel universe, constellated by sumptuous descriptions and erudite references, suspenseful twists and jolting turns, as well as characters so fully fleshed out that you mourn their absence long after returning the books to their shelves.

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