Review by Darcy Short

It’s nice when a novel lives up to the hype surrounding it. The Goldfinch does just that. It has been placed on numerous best-of-the-year lists and for good reason. The book follows the life of Theodore Decker, a New York boy whose life is pushed into an unusual trajectory after his mother is killed when a bomb is set off in an art museum. In the confusion surrounding the explosion, a concussed Theo makes off with a beautiful painting of a goldfinch done by an obscure Dutch master.

The Goldfinch A Novel

Theo bounces between high-class apartments of New York’s elite to Las Vegas development ghost towns to Amsterdam’s criminal underworld. Theo’s world is richly drawn, lovingly detailed and never boring. Tartt creates characters that are flawed, believable and deeply relatable. The Goldfinch is a gorgeously written testament to the power of art to impact the lives of its admirers and is not to be missed.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date: 2013
ISBN-13: 978-0316055437