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)

Beautifully Written

I absolutely loved this book. I became obsessed with it and I could hardly put it down. I felt so. icj of the sadness and it resonated with me so mich.5

It transported me to a magical world...

I loved this book. Although I usually don't really like when narrators create personas I loved Boris in this. The story was well developed and I enjoyed it a great deal.

Narrator is excellent

David Pittu does an excellent job with this book. I found myself continuing only because of his depiction of characters. The story itself is very good. However, there were several sections where I felt the author was rambling unnecessarily. Yes, some of this was necessary for story development but quite a bit was simply languishing.

An immensely meaningful work

Never have I heard a more captivating work; one that captures a reader/listener and engrosses them in a world and series of events, only for them to hang on every word to find out what happens. Genius work.

Good

it was hard to get into it and struggled with the narrator's voice with female characters. I didnt love the ending, however it was a book full of twists and turns and I enjoyed most of it.

Truly great

This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. To hear it performed like this is a wonderful experience. It’s a huge crazy story performed by one person who is perfect with so many voices: young Theo, older Theo, women, men, accents from Ukraine to Mexico to Dutch—a virtuoso performance.

Loved this!

The story was very slow beginning, but once you get into it can't stop listening!

beautiful prose but shockingly weak storyline

This book contains stunning prose. This book also contains so many errors through poor editing that I was dumbfounded. I cannot recommend this title.

Best audio book

Everything about this book is remarkable. The prose, the way it is written, the way it is narrated, and the story itself. Loved it!

Hard to get through...

Wow hard to get through, but in the end I think it is worth it. Narration was great and it was beautifully written. One of the first times I think an abridged version might have been better though. The scenes dragged on and on and on. While it was beautiful, I found myself tuning out. Also just too much despair and depressing throughout (just my personal preference). It was hard for me to sit through the darkness surrounding most of the story.

I still give it a good rating because I think it was well done, and the ending was not predictable.