The Goldfinch cover art

The Goldfinch

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

The Goldfinch

By: Donna Tartt
Narrated by: David Pittu
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £19.84

Buy Now for £19.84

Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.©2013 Tay Ltd. Coming of Age Contemporary Fiction Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Fiction Thought-Provoking Inspiring Heartfelt
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

Another rich slice of gothic drama (Books of the Year)
Combines narrative grandeur with dazzling detail (Books of the Year)
Sublimely written, with elegant touches of the gothic (Books of the Year)
Really does grip from the first page... a noirish thriller and epic love story rolled into one (Books of the Year)
Runs the gamut from thriller to meditation on loss, and runs it magnificently (Books of the Year)
A soaring masterpiece
The Goldfinch is a triumph... Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction
Sumptuous, generous and entirely captivating (Books of the Year)
Dazzling. A glorious, Dickensian novel that pulls together all Tartt's remarkable storytelling talents into a rapturous, symphonic whole and reminds the reader of the immersive, stay-up-all-night pleasures of reading
An astonishing achievement. If anyone has lost their love of storytelling, The Goldfinch will most certainly return it to them. The last few pages of the novel take all the serious, big, complicated ideas beneath the surface and hold them up to the light. Not for Tartt the kind of clever riffs which are too commonly found in contemporary fiction. Instead, when plot comes to an end, she leads us to a place just beyond it - a place of meaning
The Goldfinch is a book about art in all its forms, and right from the start we remember why we enjoy Donna Tartt so much: the humming plot and elegant prose; the living, breathing characters; the perfectly captured settings.... Joy and sorrow exist in the same breath, and by the end The Goldfinch hangs in our stolen heart
Lavish and lush in décor and span... The novel lets us see, and feel, the real bird beyond the brush, or rather, the grief, and addictive yearning, behind its cabinet of curiosities. For those who want to share the double vision, to slip attentively between luxurious illusion and overt craftiness, a deeper layer of pleasure awaits in The Goldfinch. In every sense, this is quite a piece of work (Boyd Tonkin)
In the epic range of its concerns with grief, loss, loneliness, fate, and the nature of good and evil, its rich cast of characters, and its broad social canvas, it bears comparison with Proust, Dickens, Dostoevsky and Nabokov. It is meticulously structured and paced, and reading it is an enthralling experience of total immersion in Tartt's vision and voice. A beautiful and important book (Elaine Showalter)
A gripping page-turner and a challenging, beautifully written account of modern life. Moving but unsentimental, funny without being trite, all human life is here. It will doubtless be a contender for one of 2013's best novels (James Kidd)
All stars
Most relevant
as a huge fan of the secret history but found the little friend a bit too meandering I was nervous about the goldfinch because if its length. but I needn't have worried. yes it's incredibly long but it's also so, so good. I don't know what to do now Theo is not in my life everyday!

ignore the reviews that say the main character is unlikeable but. it's true that his best friend Boris is extremely likeable and the reader portrays all the characters brilliantly. there's so much fluidity that you forget there's anything in between you and the story. almost like it's happening directly in your mind.

I enjoyed Zandra enormously and the whole time he is in Vegas is really special. I don't know what else to say other than if you want something so good that takes a long time to end then listen to this audio book!

so good and so long it becomes a part of you

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Where does The Goldfinch rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This was one of the most enjoyable performances I listened to recently - certainly among the top 5.
The story starts with an utterly mesmerising account of a bomb explosion in a New York Museum. In that explosion, the young protagonist loses his mother but gains an artwork and a love that will haunt his life. To say more would spoil everything, but you'll be hooked from the start. The characters are fascinating, utterly believable and the plot engrossing if just this side of believable - whenever you think it couldn't get worse, it does. Much here revolves around friendship and love, greed and commitment, money and drugs, class and exclusion.

What other book might you compare The Goldfinch to, and why?

The plot and characters feel Dickensian - the motherless child, the stolen artwork, the unattainable love, an artful dodger as best friend, bad company, avuncular protectors, upper class people whom one ends up pitying…. The ending is disappointing, as if Tartt couldn't quite work out how to get her man out of the story, and the genre slides into some absurd thriller-like writing that felt rather forced. However, what comes before the final hour is absolutely worth listening to.The Goldfinch is the title of a painting whose fate is tied up with that of the protagonist, and as such this device is reminiscent of Henry James (in The Wings of the Dove or The Golden Bowl). But the writing couldn't be more unlike the prose of the later James - clear, sharp, and well-paced.

Have you listened to any of David Pittu’s other performances? How does this one compare?

This was my first encounter with Pittu. The performance contributes much to making this book engrossing: the characters become real and the accents add so much to the characterisation. It's a wonderful achievement.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The protagonist stumbles from one loss to the next, first the mother, then his love, then his best friend, but some of these can be regained… Leaving his mother's flat behind and discovering the truth about his father is the most painful bit, and rendered very poignantly.

Any additional comments?

It's a flawed novel - the ending really wobbles - but characterisation and plotting are handled masterfully. Thoroughly enjoyable. A real storyteller or a writer.

Utterly gripping story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Donna Tartt is a fine writer but desperately needs a strong editor to temper her enthusiasm for sheer length. This book should surely have been no more than 20 hours rather than 32 hours. To be clear, I do NOT mean it should be abridged – I mean it should have been more accurately focussed in the first place, before publication. Maintaining my attention was a problem at many points, most especially towards the end, when my own enthusiasm was waning! It says something that I did stick with it, but any joy in listening to this novel had been long lost by the time it finally got to the end.

Overly long, saved by good narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What did you like most about The Goldfinch?

I spent many a happy hour trying to work out which Dickens character she is using at any given point (warning--it can be a couple of them at the same time) .

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Goldfinch?

The bus journey from Nevada to New York, smuggling a forbidden passenger (a small dog) in a bag.

Have you listened to any of David Pittu’s other performances? How does this one compare?

This is the first reading by Pittu that I have heard. He did well considering all the voices involved, but failed pretty badly with the character of Boris who, born in Ukraine, had spent several years in an Australian environment as a child. The narrator describes him as speaking good English but with a strange combination of accents--"Russian" but mixed with some Australian. Pittu made no attempt to put the Australian in and the boy in his early teens was given a slavic accent which remained every bit as strong even after he had grown up to adulthood in the US. You'd think at least the edges would have worn off by then.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Considering its length, one sitting would have been possible only if I had no family, no life and was hooked up to an intravenous coffee drip and a urinary catheter.

Any additional comments?

The book could have been about half the length without any loss of plot or punch. It was a good story and well populated by interesting people. The younger Theo is very well represented and Tartt gives us some thought-provoking insights into the world of an adolescent boy growing up in difficult, chaotic circumstances. Although in my opinion we can thank Dickens for the templates, particularly of the more eccentric characters and the style which involves a lot of unlikely, fortunate co-incidences and convenient legacies, there is nothing wrong with bringing a winning formula up to date.
I remain quite annoyed with Tartt, though, for killing Steerforth's brother instead of Steerforth himself.

Oh for God's sake, woman. Get to the POINT!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I use Audible to listen to books I know I wouldn't actually read. This is a great example. I would have been put off by the hype, the length, and grisly opening section - and I would have missed what was, for me, a great book.

I have never read any of her other (I think only two...?) books, so I can make no comparisons.

This book ticked a lot of boxes for me: long (very); meandering, and with changes of setting - New York, Vegas, Amsterdam, back to NY.

The subject - well it's hard to say. It is a chronological story, beginning with a horrific incident that totally shapes Theo's life. The painting of The Goldfinch lives this life with him, it is (he thinks) always there. It's a story of loss, mental illness, drug use, art, love and especially, I think, of enduring friendship.

The best parts for me happen as Theo is older and returns to NY. I also loved the character of Boris, but I would say that all the characters were very well drawn and lived vividly in my imagination - except, oddly, Theo himself. Sometimes, he seemed so contradictory.

I was anxious throughout the book - low-level sense of menace and a feeling, that I suppose Theo always lived with - of something 'bad' about to happen. And, a lot of bad things DO happen to him. And some good things, too.

I think the book is very layered. You can read it as a story - and it's a great story; or you can try and see the layers. I think I did both, because it's the sort of book that stays on in your mind after it ends.

The ending (this isn't a spoiler) is fairly satisfactory but also, the very end of the book does drift a little. But basically we know the main outcome. I wanted more closure - not for Theo, but for the other main characters.

The narration was faultless. It added so much to the book.

I was very sorry to finish it.

Completely swept up with The Goldfinch

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews