TOMB SERVICE Tinti drew inspiration from an old term for grave-robbers.

Photograph: Marianne Barcellona

In 2001, when Hannah Tinti made her first attempt to write a novel, she didn’t know what direction the story would take. “It was just after 9/11, and I thought, If I’m ever going to do this, better start now,” the Brooklyn author tells TONY. Already a published short-story author, she sat down and composed a single scene that had been lingering in her head. It featured a boy with a missing hand, who accompanies a group of grave-robbers as they unearth a man—who, it turns out, has been mistakenly buried alive. But Tinti hadn’t yet decided who the boy was, how he lost his hand or why he was with these men who were digging people up. “I wrote the scene and put it aside,” she recalls. She carried the dormant idea in her notebook, concentrating instead on Animal Crackers, her acclaimed 2004 story collection, and then spent four years figuring out that graveyard episode, which now appears in the middle of her debut novel, The Good Thief.

Set in a 19th-century New England inspired by Tinti’s childhood in Salem, Massachusetts, the book is a rollicking story chock-full of orphans, missing limbs and shady characters. Ren, a one-handed 11-year-old who was left at a dreary orphanage as an infant, is released into the custody of Benjamin Nab, a crook who claims to be the boy’s long-lost brother. Driven by fantastic, adventure-like episodes, the novel’s first half follows Ren, Benjamin and a cast of misfit con artists on a series of criminal expeditions, which include horse theft, grave-robbing (cadavers fetched a high price at medical schools) and some snake-oil salesmanship. By the time we reach the book’s third act, the picaresque narrative has turned fantastical and bleak, as Ren falls victim to the evil owner of a mousetrap factory, who just might hold the key to his true ancestry. Will his unsavory associates come to the rescue?

Though The Good Thief is an engrossing read, it also comes embedded with a tender and subtle nod to the importance of companionship, even if the companions are criminals. Tinti says that she didn’t have this in mind while she was working on the book. “You don’t really know what you’re writing about until after you’ve written it,” she says. She now realizes that her novel—which is dedicated to her sisters—is really about family, the kind we’re born into and the kind we may create on our own. “As a kid you take your family for granted, as a teen you just want to get away from it. It isn’t until we’re adults that we can really appreciate it for what it is.” Over the course of the story, Ren must come to terms with the truth about his mysterious past, his missing hand and the merry yet corrupt men who have become his surrogate caretakers.

Tinti, a cofounder of One Story magazine (each issue publishes a single piece of short fiction), is an aggressive advocate of the short story, so the big challenge in writing her first novel was finding a way to draw the episodes of her narrative together. Charles Dickens lent inspiration, though not, as some might expect, to the novel’s orphan-meets-crooks plot. Instead, Tinti studied the serialized form of works like Great Expectations, which originally appeared in magazine installments. Like Dickens, Tinti is firmly rooted in a mission to keep readers interested by creating gripping drama. She knows how to write a cliff-hanger, and frequently ends chapters with Ren being led into what seems like inescapable doom.

Still, despite the nod to the eminent Victorian novelist, this is a distinctly modern book. Tinti sets A Good Thief in the 19th century, and one of her initial inspirations came from a dictionary of obsolete English phrases (she was fascinated by an old term for grave-robbers: resurrection men), but the author doesn’t try to impress us with period dialect or stray history lessons. “I wanted the freedom to make it my own, surreal New England,” Tinti says. This is a good thing: It is easy to see how striving for accuracy might have restricted the vivid lunacy of her page-turner storytelling.

Tinti does remain old-fashioned regarding other literary conventions. There are no plans, for example, for One Story to offer its authors’ works online. “I think there is something about holding a physical copy in your hands that brings that sense of appreciation home,” Tinti says. This appreciation for books and the stories they can tell is readily apparent in The Good Thief. And readers are likely to share the excitement as they enter the chaotic, intoxicating world bound between its covers.

The Good Thief (Dial, $25) is out now. Tinti reads Mon 8 and Wed 10 (see listings). She will also read Sept 12 at Pianos and Sept 14 at the Brooklyn Book Festival.

Buy The Good Thief now on BN.com