The Goldfinch

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2014

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.