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)

Will actually touch you

This book is not just a well written story but a piece of art itself. I haven’t had a book actually touch me and have me analyzing the characters in years. Poetically written and the audio performance does it justice.

Best narration I’ve ever heard!!

Unbelievable story, written with more detail that you feel as if you are there, experiencing every emotion of the writer. Very long, but worth every minute.

Good but dragged on a bit

good story but tragic and depressing. The depressing parts seemed to drag quite a bit. The narrator did a very good job, I enjoyed him. Not sure I’d listen to another story by this author however.

Long book

i liked the story. thought the ending was weird. many places where author seemed to ramble on and on. could have been shorter. I lost interest more than once.

Excellent Narration

It's a bit long, but does hold your interest throughout. Not a very satisfying ending however.

The Goldfinch

This book was Amazing. What a great Adventure!!!! It inspired me to paint it myself to always remember this great Story.

Pretentious rambling snd a thin storyline cannot be saved by a great performance

Donna Tartt certainly can write a vivid description of a place, a character, a painting or inclement weather. The problem with this novel for me was that in the last third of the book she turns into a moral philosopher and essayist, and a rather bland and predictable one.
What starts as a dramatic story with vivid characters rather quickly dissolves into a cautionary tale about child abandonment which becomes less and less believable and more and more didactic.
Then it turns into a fast paced detective story which fights and gun shots and as soon as that base is covered turns into an endless row of essays about place of art in our culture, the meaning of life itself
While the hero loves how a painter "shows how his picture was drawn", it ruins the magic of the book, when you can see how the book is cobbled together and attempts to cover all the bases
The reader is great. I would not have listened to the end if it weren't for his wonderful performance.

Incredible writing, tough to read

5/5: I have to give this 5 stars because, hands down, the writing is incredible. I can't say I fully "enjoyed" this book though, because there were so many self destructive elements to Theo and Boris' characters that it was hard to stomach. I also didn't always enjoy the extended descriptions of Theo's drug induced states and experiences. And, honestly, it was too long. Having said all that Tartt knows how to weave numerous plot lines expertly into one another so that you want to hang in there to find out what happens. There is so much that happens (actual plot movement) but, for me, it's the feelings and working out of essential questions like why do bad things happen, is a person's character changeable, how can so much beauty live alongside so much misery, etc. that kept me listening. I am not sure Theo lands in an entirely "positive" place, but I suppose it's an honest place given the life he's led. The narrator for the audio version was superb.

Loved it!

I wish I had a friend like Boris!

A really wonderful and warm story with just the perfect amount of twists and turns. Like that perfect cup of tea with just the right temperature to bring out the perfect hint of bergamot!

I wanted to love it much more

This was recommended to me at school, and I see why. It feels so real, yet also foreign. Theo is a PTSD ridden crazy person, and we see his struggles. The major problem of the book is the dizzying jumps of up to 8 years! They aren't integrated well, and there's one chapter that I feel was put in the wrong order. The narrator is incredible, and I feel spoiled now, going to see the movie on Saturday, Elgort as Theo and Wolfhard as young Boris seems so wrong!