The Goldfinch is a mesmerizing, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention. He is alienated and in love - and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle. 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 a longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into a wealthy and insular art community.Īs an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. A young New Yorker grieving his mother's death is pulled into a gritty underworld of art and wealth in this 'extraordinary' and beloved Pulitzer Prize winner from the author of The Secret History that 'connects with the heart as well as the mind' (Stephen King, New York Times Book Review). 'A haunting, compelling, and brilliant piece of fiction. She's a gorgeous storyteller' Stephen King 'Donna Tartt is an amazingly good writer.

'So irresistible and seductive it's almost a guilty pleasure' Guardian The Secret History is a story of two parts the chain of events that led to the death of a classmate - and what happened next. But when they go beyond the boundaries of morality, their lives are changed profoundly and for ever. Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. 'What we did was terrible, but still I don't think any of us were bad, exactly chalk it up to weakness on my part, hubris on Henry's, too much Greek prose composition - whatever you like.'

Truly deserving of the accolade Modern Classic, Donna Tartt's bestseller The Secret History is a remarkable achievement - both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful.

FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE GOLDFINCH

The goldfinch book genre