The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt The story begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old boy from New Yorke, miraculously survives an accident that caused his mother to die. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. totally confused by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and is in pain above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he is stuck to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art. As an adult, Theo moves smoothly between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antique store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle. The Goldfinch combines vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and suspense, while plumbing with a philosopher's calm the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and art. It is an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.