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)

One in a thousand books are this good!!!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Goldfinch to be better than the print version?

Yes! I always feel that the book is better than the movie, but incredibly, the audio brings extra life, texture, to the extraordinary story. The renderings of the inward, struggling narrator and the wonderfully unbound Boris are absolutely stellar! I actually miss Boris.
Really. It's that great.

What did you like best about this story?

First, the story is unbelievably original, unpredictable, fantastic. Starts in excruciatingly
slow detail, always interesting though, but necessary as the circumstances and events
to follow are all contingent upon the beginning.
Second, the narrator, Mr Pittu, delivers a so real and addictive performance,
no way to stop listening -- I have to find out what happens to these wonderful, damaged
characters! Seriously, I miss them. You get in very deep and I feel the loss.
Stellar story and performance.

If you could rename The Goldfinch, what would you call it?

Perfect name, no change.

Any additional comments?

Loved this, story and reading. So good!

The Goldfinch

This book presented the dark side of life. Was way to wordy and over written. The last few chapters could be skipped without missing any meaning lost. Too much death and dying for a pre-teen here. The relationship between Boris and the boy is plausible but all the behavior mentioned by Boris seemed gratatudious for the reader

Well written, well narrated, BUT....

This book is a great fiction book. I do not normally listen to fiction. I prefer fantasy and sci fi. However with that said, I believe this to be great literature. A great fiction book. The author knows how to write a compelling story. It is Very well written and very well narrated!!!

BUT....it is so so depressing. I did not want to put the book down not only for reasons that the book was well written and narrated or that it was a compelling story, I would listen for 8-11 hour stretches just so I could hear if ANY positivity was in the main characters life. I wanted to see the poor boy happy atleast once. But he never finds happiness. He is perpetually in a world of horror and gloom and unhappiness. Its just so sad. I thought maybe the ending would be positive and I suppose in a morbid way, it could be defined as a happy ending. But I dont see it.

GREAT BOOK.
WELL WRITTEN.
VERY WELL NARRATION.
Very depressing.

good story

captured interest without a bunch of sex and not too much violence. performance was great.

Great book but be prepared for a stressful ride.

Would definitely recommend this book but will say it was a very stressful storyline! The character development was amazing and the prose beautifully written and at times, haunting. The oral performance was one of the best I have ever heard.

best book I've gotten on audible

Loved it and felt so invested in the story. I cant recommend it highly enough!

Beautiful writing, less than interesting story

The writing was beautiful and detailed. But the overall story did not captivate me. It was ok.

Story yelling at its finest.

Both the offer and narrator are exceptional at their craft. I was engaged from beginning to end.

My heart

after the first hour or so of listening, I was hooked and could hardly stop listening. Still processing how I feel about the end. Unfortunately, today was the kind of day that if there is a positive note at the end, I couldn’t hear it.

Perfect narration - a masterpiece!

After 30+ hours of listening, I still didn't want it to end. This book is truly a masterpiece with characters that come alive.
One small note to the publisher is that it didn't make sense to change "reader" to "listener" just because this is an audiobook. The character was still writing, not recording his voice. It's one thing to make this change in celebrity memoirs but not in major works of literature, please!