WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
“The Goldfinch is a rarity that comes along perhaps half a dozen times per decade, a smartly written literary novel that connects with the heart as well as the mind….Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction.” — Stephen King, The New York Times Book Review
Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his … that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don’t know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.
As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love—and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle. The Goldfinch is a mesmerizing, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.
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All writers begin as readers. This is where we fall in love with story. We are addicted to that feeling. You know the one: when you open a book and read a few words, a few sentences. And you just know . . . there’s a zing, a little buzz of excitement. Right away, you can sense that there is a journey ahead, and it’s going to be wonderful.
As I …
This book blew me away. It has pretty much everything a reader could want in a book, from beautiful prose and romance to adventure and murder. I’m learning that entire-life-spanning tales are my cup of tea (thank you Donna Tartt, Kristin Hannah, and Lauren Groff), and The Goldfinch is exemplary in that regard.
Theo, while being kind of a Bad Guy, …
When I checked The Goldfinch out from the library on my Kindle, I had no idea it was almost 800 pages long. After I’d been reading for three days and was only at 21%, I looked up the page count. So at first I felt the book was filled with too many details and too long, but once I slowed down and just read, well, I loved this novel. Tartt’s writing …
One of my top 10 favorite books ever, and I have read thousands of books over 70 years! The Goldfinch is brilliantly written over a long time period. It is a very long book with a very long, complicated story. I was recovering from a serious surgery while I read it and it held me so rapt that I often just ignored the pain of recovery! The message …
Could hardly stop reading this when we reviewed it book club a few years ago. I loved the characters and felt as if I inhabited the apartments and the streets they inhabited. I would love to see any of them again, though I’m not sure I would recognize all of them in their current states!
I read this book a few years back, and the characters have stayed with me. The wasteland of failed housing developments in the Las Vegas desert is unforgettable too. This was a hard-to-put-down book for me.
An amazing book. Donna Tartt’s prose is breathtaking. She makes the reader actually care for and about a group of people who are not generally sympathetic characters: drug addicts and alcoholics. The protagonist is sadly broken. Many of the characters are broken. Yet we truly care about them and are rooting for,them to succeed. A beautiful story, …
The Goldfinch is essentially Theo Decker’s story and the story of a painting entitled ‘The Goldfinch’. It starts with an adult Theo and then it takes us back to that moment when his life was forever changed. When Theo loses his mother and becomes the owner of sorts to ‘The Goldfinch’, he is essentially an orphan. With grandparents who don’t know …
I’m sorry, but I hated everything about this book: the characters, the plot, the lack of reality that infused it.
Browsing through the reviews on GoodBooks, I found some sage advice I wished I’d stumbled on 300 pages earlier: “To anyone wondering if they should still read this book, since reviewers are so divided (e.g. you either LOVE it or HATE …
ICYMI: The Goldfinch is really, really good.
The Goldfinch is one of the best books I’ve read. It is incredibly sad, but punctuated with sharp humor and irony. The language is rich–English at its best. The characters are deep and well drawn. In my opinion, everything is good about this book. No surprise that it won the Pulitzer.
Awful! Went on and on and on. Where were her editors?
Donna Tartt is one of the very best fiction writers ever. Having done a little work myself, I know how difficult it is to take readers places they may not wish to go, but end up wishing they could stay. The Goldfinch is an amazing journey from an amazing woman. I enjoy all types of books, but it is difficult for me to categorize any of Tartt’s …
I loved this book!! It’s one of the best I’ve read in a long time and I will read it again, perhaps a few more times. It was so layered! Great book!
I wouldn’t call the characters “wonderful” — in fact, I frequently use this book as an example of characters I cannot like, but the writing is so good that I keep reading anyway.
I found the Goldfinch to be an engaging story although I did have to dispense with the believability of a key part of the story. But like James Bond films, you have to go with it to have the adventure. This is a dark, melancholy book and you may not like the central character, but the writing and the craft are exquisite.
If you haven’t read this book, stop reading this review (and any other) and simply read this marvelous book.
This is one HEFTY book featuring a number of well-defined characters, an intricate plot with twists and turns. It could and should have been edited to trim it by at least 50 pages as I found some of the detail superfluous.
The writing is superb. I could actually place myself inside the story at times – that’s how vivid some of the scenes were. I loved the characters. Very realistic and fully developed within the story. This book is not a quick read but it kept me interested from cover to cover. The ending was a surprise.
Long and totally engrossing I really enjoyed this book.