The Goldfinch

by Donna Tartt, Katia Benovich · 2013

Theo Decker is thirteen when a terrorist bomb at a museum kills his mother and irrevocably shatters his world. In the chaos and smoke, he takes a small, captivating painting—The Goldfinch—the one object that still connects him to her. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend, but he remains adrift, haunted by grief and unable to find his place among Park Avenue's privileged halls or the schoolmates who don't know how to speak to him. Years later, Theo moves between the glittering drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty back rooms of an antiques shop, a young man both alienated and in love, and increasingly entangled in a dangerous circle surrounding the stolen masterpiece. As the past closes in, he must confront the devastating cost of his obsession and the ruthless machinations of fate. A soaring, stay-up-all-night triumph, The Goldfinch is an old-fashioned story of loss and survival, self-invention and the strange, enduring power of art. It is a masterpiece that connects with the heart as well as the mind.