The Goldfinch

By: Donna Tartt

Narrated by: David Pittu

Length: 32 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Winner, Solo Narration - Male, 2014

Audie Award Winner, Literary Fiction, 2014

The author of the classic best-sellers The Secret History and The Little Friend returns with a brilliant, highly anticipated new novel.

Composed with the skills of a master, The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling force and acuity.

It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.

As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and at the center of a narrowing, ever-more-dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a novel of shocking narrative energy and power. It combines unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and breathtaking suspense, while plumbing with a philosopher's calm the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and art. It is a beautiful, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.

©2013 Donna Tartt (P)2013 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

Narrator David Pittu accepts the task of turning this immense volume into an excellent listening experience. Pittu portrays 13-year-old orphan Theo Decker with compassion, portraying his growing maturity in this story of grief and suspense…Pittu adds pathos to his depiction of the troubled Theo as he deals with addiction and finds himself in a dance with gangsters and the art world's darker dealers. ( AudioFile)

"Dazzling....[A] glorious, Dickensian novel, a novel that pulls together all Ms. Tartt's remarkable storytelling talents into a rapturous, symphonic whole and reminds the reader of the immersive, stay-up-all-night pleasures of reading." ( New York Times)

"A long-awaited, elegant meditation on love, memory, and the haunting power of art....Eloquent and assured, with memorable characters....A standout-and well-worth the wait." ( Kirkus, Starred Review)

good book

one of my favorite audio books, as always, get thru the first couple chapters until theo meets borris

Belabored and expository, but great narration

Narrated beautifully and expressively. Tartt, however, belabors her point(s) and over works the language in a way that weighs down her ideas... i.e. way too much paint goops up the image on the canvas.

Very smart author, drags a little

The author is very in tune with beauty in the form of art and music and has some interesting theories on life after death and the meaning of life in general. A drug a little through the areas of the book where descriptions of the drug-induced hallucinations were described but other than that I was able to follow along through the journey without getting bored.

Drawn Out

The storyline was excellent as was the performance. Unfortunately, there was way too much rambling about deep thoughts. The entire last chapter could probably have been left out.

good story!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes- it was a great story of a young boy's life- I was a bit disappointed in the ending- but it still worked out OK

What about David Pittu’s performance did you like?

David did a fantastic job switching voices for the characters- I noticed one slip- but hey...

Any additional comments?

a good listen.

The best book I've read in a long time

What made the experience of listening to The Goldfinch the most enjoyable?

The story, the performance. Both stellar.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Goldfinch?

The performance brought these characters to life.

Any additional comments?

Check out an online exhibit of the real painting The Goldfinch. Makes this reading experience richer.

very very good

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

A good read...

What other book might you compare The Goldfinch to and why?

poisonwood diary

What does David Pittu bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I enjoyed listening to it but finished it by reading the book.

Great read

The narration was excellent . The story well written . Don't know why this will only let me submit if I have more words.

Long but good

Parts of this book I loved and parts I hated. There were definitely parts that kept me captivated and entertained and then times I felt like quitting the book altogether. In the end I'm glad I didn't. I really enjoyed it and the narrator was perfect.

The Goldfinch

Any additional comments?

Long, close to thirty hours of listening, The Goldfinch is read by David Pittu. The Goldfinch is a coming-of-age tale surrounding the life of Theo, victim of a terrorist attack at a New York art museum. He is left orphaned, mother dead, father a dead-beat alcoholic. During the attack, Theo takes a very old painting admired by his mother, ergo the title. Theo is only a boy, with no criminal thought in taking the painting. The museum is a crumbled mess of broken bricks, dust, dead bodies. Theo simply takes the painting for his mother. Unbeknownst to Theo, many other works of art have gone missing. There are emotions that come to mind with regard to the main character: angst, puppy love, strange obsessiveness for his deceased mother, questionable moral character, drug muddled thinking, stupid decisions. The reader has to be in the right mindset to enjoy this book, i.e., be prepared to let the author ramble…ramble a lot.

The fact that The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer for fiction in 2014 is the reason I've read this lengthy tomb. Donna Tartt has joined the ranks of Hemingway, Joyce Carol Oates, Updike, Faulkner, Michener, Herman Wouk, Allen Drury, many more. This particular award seems to be a clear statement indicating a drop in required standards. The story weaves through Theo’s life, straying to irrelevant situations and characters, and at least twice as long as what could be a decent story … but over-written beyond boredom in many sections.

Narration by David Pittu is superb, voices for each character are unique, male and female alike. Lovely reading.

However, after about thirteen hours on the iPhone Audible app, I began to jump forward a chapter here, a chapter there, missing nothing pertinent, and set the player speed up to 1.5.