A profound meditation on loss and belonging that doubles as a compelling psychological thriller, Tartt’s monolithic bildungsroman shimmers with insight and incident on every page. From urban metropolis to parched desert and dusty antiques store to Manhattan high society, The Goldfinch is an endlessly enjoyable novel that speaks eloquently to our times.
‘You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.’
For the young Theo Decker, left shiftless and alone after the horrific death of his mother in an explosion at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, that life-defining picture is Carel Fabritius’ The Goldfinch. Retrieved by Theo in the aftermath of the blast, somehow he never finds the courage to return it to its rightful owners.
And thus begins Theo Decker’s descent into crime…
Moving seamlessly from the frantic whirl of New York to the twitchy desert heat of Las Vegas, and from the archaic plunder of a downtown antiques store to the bohemian drawing rooms of high society Manhattan, Donna Tartt’s dazzling third novel tracks Theo’s precarious journey through 21st century America. It is a journey that will combine love and heartache with police tape and shoot-outs, and confirms its author’s place as one of the great contemporary American novelists.
A profound meditation on loss and belonging that doubles as a compelling psychological thriller, a Hollywood adaptation of The Goldfinch, starring Nicole Kidman and Ansel Elgort, will be appearing in UK cinemas later in the year.
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 9780349139630
Number of pages: 912
Weight: 590 g
Dimensions: 197 x 126 x 48 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'A glorious novel that pulls together all her remarkable storytelling talents into a rapturous, symphonic whole and reminds the reader of the immersive, stay-up-all-night pleasures of reading.' - Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
'The Goldfinch is a triumph . . . Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction.' - Stephen King, New York Times
'An astonishing achievement . . . if anyone has lost their love of storytelling, The Goldfinch will most certainly return it to them. The last few pages of the novel take all the serious, big, complicated ideas beneath the surface and hold them up to the light.' - Guardian
'A modern epic and an old-fashioned pilgrimage...Dickens with guns, Dostoevsky with pills, Tolstoy with antiques. And if it doesn't gain Tartt entry to the mostly boys' club that is The Great American Novel, to drink with life-members John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth et al, then we should close down the joint and open up another for the Great Global Novel - for that is what this is.' - Alex O'Connell, The Times
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“The Goldfinch”
This author certainly takes her time and as you read you feel as if you are living at the same pace. The book keeps you in suspense as to what will happen to a rescued and very valuable painting. It is also about... More
“its glow enveloped me, something almost musical,”
The novel opens with Theo Decker ensconced in an Amsterdam hotel scanning Dutch newspapers, which he can’t decipher. Theo is looking for his name in any and all articles that relate to criminal activity by way of... More
“Wonderful - but skim the middle”
The Goldfinch starts out fantastically and a great pace, and throughout the whole book we're treated to feasts of language, perfect for savouring. However, there's a large part of the middle of the book that... More
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