About the book: 2009 / The action of the novel "The Secret History", which sold five million copies in the United States, takes place in a small college in Vermont, where nineteen-year-old Richard Paypen comes from California to study Ancient Greek language. Papen's new friends - four young men and one girl - are smart, relaxed, rich and so passionate about ancient culture that they consider themselves almost a special caste of its guardians. Their friendship does not withstand, however, the onslaught of the modern world. A murder occurs in a cheerful and close-knit company. Trying to comprehend what happened many years later, the hero recreates his student life day by day, the stages of relationships with classmates and his girlfriend, and under the virtuoso pen of Donna Tartt, his confession turns into a high-quality psychological thriller.