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{{Infobox book
| name              = The Other
| image             = The Other by Thomas Tryon First Ed.png
| caption           = First edition cover
| alt               = 
| author            = [[Tom Tryon|Thomas Tryon]]
| title_orig        = 
| orig_lang_code    = English
| title_working     = 
| translator        = 
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = United States
| language          = English
| series            = 
| subject           = 
| genre             = [[Psychological horror]]
| published         = May 1971 
|publisher = [[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]]
| media_type        = Print
| pages             = 272  
| awards            = 
| isbn              = 978-0394467443
| oclc              = 
| dewey             = 
| congress          = 
| preceded_by       = 
| followed_by       = [[Harvest Home (novel)|Harvest Home]] ''(1973)''
| wikisource        = 
}}

'''''The Other''''' is a [[psychological horror]] novel by American writer [[Tom Tryon|Thomas Tryon]], published in 1971. It was his [[debut novel]].

Tryon, who had been a working actor, retired from his Hollywood career to become a novelist. Upon its release, the novel received wide critical acclaim and became a surprise bestseller.<ref name="nyrb">{{Cite magazine |title=The Other by Thomas Tryon |url=http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/the-other-tryon/ |accessdate=2013-09-17 |work=NY Review of Books}}</ref><ref>"Thomas Tryon's bestselling novel ''The Other'' (1971), which also received a cinematic tribute in 1972". Renner, Karen J., ''Evil Children in the Popular Imagination''. London, Palgrave Macmillian. {{ISBN|9781137599636}} (p.4)</ref> ''The Other'' was adapted into a 1972 [[The Other (1972 film)|film of the same name]] directed by [[Robert Mulligan]] and starring [[Uta Hagen]]. The novel was reprinted in a commemorative edition in 2012 by [[New York Review Books]] with an afterword by [[Dan Chaon]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Other (New York Review Books Classics)|isbn=978-1590175835|last1=Tryon|first1=Thomas|year=2012|publisher=New York Review of Books }}</ref>

==Plot==
Set in 1935, the novel focuses on the sadistic relationship between two 13-year-old, [[identical twins|identical twin]] boys: one of whom is well behaved while the other is a [[Antisocial personality disorder|sociopath]] who wreaks havoc on his family's rural [[New England]] farm property.

==Reception==
''The Other'' spent more than six months on the ''[[New York Times]]'' best-seller list and sold more than 3.5 million copies.<ref name="cohen19910905">{{Cite news |last=Cohen |first=Noam S. |date=September 5, 1991 |title=Thomas Tryon, Who Quit Acting For a Writing Career, Dies at 65 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/05/obituaries/thomas-tryon-who-quit-acting-for-a-writing-career-dies-at-65.html |access-date=2025-11-18 |work=The New York Times |pages=D26 |language=en}}</ref>

The ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' described the novel as "beautifully, even poetically, wrought".<ref>Hughes, Dorothy. "Murder through a glass darkly."  Los Angeles Times, 23 May 1971</ref> The ''[[Cleveland Plain Dealer]]'' said that it was "A psychological thriller that you read a second time to see how the author did it". The book was "Truly extraordinary!", according to ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]''. "Like most professional writers", [[Anthony Burgess]] griped, "I resent Tom Tryon’s ''The Other'', since Tryon should get on with the job of being a good actor and not write good books as well. Enough is enough already. ''The Other'' is a highly readable chiller". "A whirlpool of Oh-My-God horror", [[Ira Levin]] wrote; "Please congratulate Mr. Tryon for me. What a marvelous job he’s done".{{r|nyrb}}

==References==
{{reflist}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Other}}
[[Category:1971 debut novels]]
[[Category:1971 American novels]]
[[Category:1970s horror novels]]
[[Category:American horror novels]]
[[Category:American psychological novels]]
[[Category:Psychological horror]]
[[Category:English-language novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in New England]]
[[Category:Novels set in Connecticut]]
[[Category:Novels set in 1935]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1930s]]
[[Category:Novels set on farms]]
[[Category:Novels about twin brothers]]
[[Category:Novels about mental health]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Horror novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Alfred A. Knopf books]]
[[Category:NYRB Classics]]

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{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=The Other (Tryon novel)|access_date=2026-03-07}}