The Goldfinch by Donna Tart

‘You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.’

For the young Theo Decker, left shiftless and alone after the horrific death of his mother in an explosion at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, that life-defining picture is Carel Fabritius’ The Goldfinch. Retrieved by Theo in the aftermath of the blast, somehow he never finds the courage to return it to its rightful owners.

And thus begins Theo Decker’s descent into crime…

Moving seamlessly from the frantic whirl of New York to the twitchy desert heat of Las Vegas, and from the archaic plunder of a downtown antiques store to the bohemian drawing rooms of high society Manhattan, Donna Tartt’s dazzling third novel tracks Theo’s precarious journey through 21^st century America. It is a journey that will combine love and heartache with police tape and shoot-outs, and confirms its author’s place as one of the great contemporary American novelists.

A profound meditation on loss and belonging that doubles as a compelling psychological thriller, a Hollywood adaptation of The Goldfinch, starring Nicole Kidman and Ansel Elgort, will be appearing in UK cinemas later in the year.