Is there an audiobook of The Goldfinch?

Yes. The Goldfinch has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by David Pittu.

How long is the The Goldfinch audiobook?

The The Goldfinch audiobook runs 32 hr 24 min.

Is The Goldfinch on Kindle Unlimited?

No. The Goldfinch was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 12, 2026.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt book cover for the Book of the Day literary fiction book review

Our score

4.0/ 5

Excellent

Listen to The Goldfinch free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

EDITION PUBLISHEDOctober 2013

Genres

Fiction Literary Fiction Coming Of Age

Themes

Grief and how a child rebuilds identity after sudden lossAuthenticity versus fabrication, in objects and in a lifeFriendship formed through shared damage and loyaltyObsession with a single object as a stand-in for loss

The Goldfinch

Name: The Goldfinch
Price: 1.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt's Pulitzer-winning novel follows a boy who survives the museum bombing that kills his mother and spends the rest of his life orbiting a small stolen painting, a sprawling coming-of-age story for readers who want grief rendered at the length it actually takes.

The Review

Our take

Tartt's real subject in The Goldfinch is how a single object can hold a life together after everything around it has come apart. Theo Decker is thirteen when the explosion takes his mother, and the painting he carries out of the wreckage becomes the one fixed point in a childhood that otherwise gets passed hand to hand, from a friend's chilly Park Avenue apartment to his father's flat, hollowed-out house outside Las Vegas.

The Vegas section is where the book finds its most vivid register, largely through Boris, the half-feral Ukrainian kid who becomes Theo's closest friend and partner in ruin. Their friendship runs on vodka, stolen pills, and a loyalty that survives betrayals that would end most relationships, and Tartt writes it with more warmth and mess than the book allows almost anywhere else. It's the place where grief stops being an internal weather system and becomes something two teenage boys do together, badly and honestly, in an empty house with a dog that won't stop barking.

The furniture-restoration world Theo drifts into as an adult gives the novel its other great texture: rooms full of objects with histories, a trade built on knowing exactly how old a scratch is and whether it's been faked. Tartt clearly loves this material, and it shows in how patiently she lingers over a drawer joint or a varnish job, using the work as a stand-in for a young man learning to tell what's authentic in his own life from what he's constructed to survive it. The painting itself stays mostly offstage for long stretches, which is the right choice: its pull on Theo is stronger for being mostly imagined rather than constantly described.

Why you should read

Want a sprawling, patient novel over a tightly plotted one
Love richly rendered settings like Vegas or an antiques workshop
Drawn to friendships forged in shared damage
Comfortable with grief examined slowly across hundreds of pages

What to expect

A long, immersive novel spanning roughly a decade
Vivid, specific settings from Manhattan to the Vegas desert
Slower stretches alongside its most emotionally charged sections
Rich sensory detail around art and antique restoration

Not every stretch justifies its page count. The book runs past eight hundred pages, and a reader will feel the difference between the sections built on real tension, the Vegas years, the late unraveling, and passages where the prose circles a feeling it's already established. That slack is a fair trade for readers who want to sit inside Theo's grief at the pace grief actually moves, but it will test anyone hoping for a tighter arc. What survives the length, though, is the ache underneath the plotting: a boy who mistook a piece of art for the thing that would keep his mother close, and a novel patient enough to let him find out just how wrong, and how understandable, that mistake was.

Reviewed by Avery · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.0/ 5

Excellent

Listen to The Goldfinch free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of The Goldfinch?: Yes. The Goldfinch has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by David Pittu.
Listen to The Goldfinch free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the The Goldfinch audiobook?: The The Goldfinch audiobook runs 32 hr 24 min.
Is The Goldfinch on Kindle Unlimited?: No. The Goldfinch was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 12, 2026.
How much does The Goldfinch cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $1.99, Paperback $13.01, Hardcover $15.00. Prices as of August 22, 2026 at 5:20 PM EDT and may change.

Filed underLiterary Fiction Coming Of Age Browse the archive →

CollectionsPage to Screen Book Club Picks Browse collections →

On saleThis book’s price just dropped.See all current deals →

More by Donna TarttSee every Donna Tartt book we've reviewed, with our scores.All Donna Tartt books →

Common questions

What is The Goldfinch about?: Tartt's real subject in The Goldfinch is how a single object can hold a life together after everything around it has come apart. Theo Decker is thirteen when the explosion takes his mother, and the painting he carries out of the wreckage becomes the one fixed point in a childhood that otherwise…
Is The Goldfinch worth reading?: We scored The Goldfinch 4 out of 5. Donna Tartt's Pulitzer-winning novel follows a boy who survives the museum bombing that kills his mother and spends the rest of his life orbiting a small stolen painting, a sprawling coming-of-age story for readers who want grief rendered at the length it actually takes.