The Goldfinch
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4.3 • 859 Ratings
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
Theo Decker, aged thirteen, is left alone in the world after surviving a catastrophe that kills his only close relative - his mother - and tears him away from everything he knows. Tormented by grief, drifting from home to home, he grows increasingly obsessed with a small, enchanting work of art which dominates his imagination and ultimately draws him, as an adult, into a much darker life than he could ever have foreseen.
'A masterpiece' The Times
'Astonishing' Guardian
'Superb' Daily Mail
'A gripping page turner' Independent on Sunday
'A triumph' Stephen King
'Dazzling' New York Times
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Like Job or the unlucky protagonist of a Victorian novel, Theo Decker is dealt blow after blow. The unforgettable hero of Donna Tartt’s astounding new novel, The Goldfinch, is a daydreamy boy who lives in a cozy Manhattan apartment with his vivacious mother until, one day, their happy existence is blown to pieces. Tartt—winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for fiction—rolls out the tumult of Theo’s life with dazzling prose that makes his every emotion, thought and experience achingly real. She envelops the reader in Theo’s world, rendering the people and places that slide in and out of his life with cinematic precision and sly humour. As you’re pulled deeper into the murk—and into the mystery of Theo’s inextricable link to a luminous painting—you’ll wait breathlessly to find out what happens next, clinging to the rays of kindness and light that Tartt captures so beautifully.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Donna Tartt's latest novel clocks in at an unwieldy 784 pages. The story begins with an explosion at the Metropolitan Museum that kills narrator Theo Decker's beloved mother and results in his unlikely possession of a Dutch masterwork called The Goldfinch. Shootouts, gangsters, pillowcases, storage lockers, and the black market for art all play parts in the ensuing life of the painting in Theo's care. With the same flair for suspense that made The Secret History (1992) such a masterpiece, The Goldfinch features the pulp of a typical bildungsroman Theo's dissolution into teenage delinquency and climb back out, his passionate friendship with the very funny Boris, his obsession with Pippa (a girl he first encounters minutes before the explosion) but the painting is the novel's secret heart. Theo's fate hinges on the painting, and both take on depth as it steers Theo's life. Some sentences are clunky ("suddenly" and "meanwhile" abound), metaphors are repetitive (Theo's mother is compared to birds three times in 10 pages), and plot points are overly coincidental (as if inspired by TV), but there's a bewitching urgency to the narration that's impossible to resist. Theo is magnetic, perhaps because of his well-meaning criminality. The Goldfinch is a pleasure to read; with more economy to the brushstrokes, it might have been great.
Customer Reviews
Gripping
The two boys becoming men and the twists and turns of their drug fuelled complicated lives with much tragedy and difficult love
Spectacular
I have read all of Donna's previous titles avidly and this one is no exception. It is a perfectly crafted masterpiece. I have been boring everyone to everyone to tears with my frequent reiterations of how brilliant it is (boyfriend's mother, mother's boyfriend). Buy and read immediately, then read The Little Friend and The Secret History. If one or all three don't become one of your all time favourite books, then stick with Bridget Jones.
The goldfinch
This book starts with a lot of promise, then seems to get lost in the middle with protracted chapters of similar information about drug withdrawal and the main characters inability to cope with life. It doesn't reach a fantastic crescendo and is rather anti climatic.