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)

Brilliantly Written & Performed

I thought the narration was spot on, I especially loved the tone/accent for Boris! It was a great book, one that I am sure will be considered great literary fiction for college students to disect themes and meanings from in the future. The story was just not for me overall, that is why I would give it between 3 and 4 stars. I just felt very sad maybe even a depressed, hopeless kind of feeling while reading it. The deep meaning was not lost on me, I just wasn't expecting it to be so dark and full of loss and sadness. Still excellent writing and narration!

Excellent book

I thought this book was great. It held my interest through the whole thing. The characters were rich and I felt emerged in them. I did not want it to end.

depressing characters and events

struggled to finish the book. wordy, depressing characters and events. won't be seeing the movie.

lots of twists and turns

loved it. exciting read with lots of twists and turns. interesting well developed characters. great narrator.

Disappointing ending

This book has a very interesting storyline. The author does a great job in getting the reader invested in the characters and their lives. Very detailed information. Easy to get wrapped up in the story but then, it’s like the author was tired of writing about it and tried to tie everything together in a few minutes. The last several minutes was spent blathering on about what I felt was unnecessary information that didn’t add to the story. If not for the ending, probably one of my favorite stories.

I loved this book!

I loved this book! It gives hope when there seems to be none. I hope there’s a sequel.

Wonderful story!

This is a drive around the block book! Just like the book you can't put down, this is a book you want to keep listening to. The narrator is exceptional and does a wonderful job with voices. Loved every minute of it and actually sorry it's over now.

Wonderful story - slow read

I loved this story but I kept getting bogged down. It took me three years to finish reading it (I had to switch to audio to get through it - which was much better!).

Way too verbose

The overall story definitely had some interesting parts to it but the language is so excessive and so flowery it really takes a lot to get to this book. If you’re just looking for a good story this is not the book for you but if you enjoy listening to books because of your love of language and want to hear every single thing described in the most minute detail then you’ll love this.

It's a handful!

I very long read. The middle definitely is detailed and drags to some degree. Overall, it was a good with awesome character development. I read the book before the movie. It was interesting to see the differences!