Number of Pages: 864
Genre: Literary fiction
In New York City, thirteen year old Theo Decker, cared for by his devoted single mother, visits an art museum with his mother, when they are caught up in a terrorist attack on the museum. Theo's mother is killed in the attack, but Theo is physically unhurt. Naturally however he is deeply traumatised by the experience and, almost without realising it, leaves with the famous 1654 painting The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius. The novel follows Theo throughout the next fourteen difficult years of his life. As he moves back and forth from New York to Las Vegas to Amsterdam, the painting remains a constant in his life, his one connection to his beloved mother, it becomes his touchstone, his obsession, his salvation and possibly his nemesis.
This is the third novel by acclaimed American novelist Donna Tartt, who made a huge splash with her debut book The Secret History in 1992. It is written in beautiful descriptive prose, and is an intriguing coming of age story, which also blends in elements of a thriller, as well as an examination of the healing and redemptive power of art. However, as you would expect from a book of this length, it doesn't all work. The plot hinges on a number of quite fantastic coincidences, and some elements of the book don't seem to fit in with the rest of the novel at all. However, despite this it is a fine, important novel.
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