“The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt is a long book. At 775 pages, it’s not something that you can read in an afternoon, but also not something you’ll want to put down. The book is a Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, and is narrated by the main character, Theo Decker. Theo and his mother are headed to his school for a conference with the principal when a rainstorms forces them into the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While browsing through the halls of art, a bomb goes off in the building, killing many people including Theo’s mother.

With bodies lying around and help unable to reach him due to the threat of another bomb potentially being in the building, Theo steals a painting. He’s no master thief by any means; he simply takes it from the floor where it has fallen, with the intention of bringing it to his mother. Through the staff exits and corridors in the back of the museum, he exits into a crowd and is quickly lost in it.

Theo is taken in by the rich family of a friend from elementary school. However, Theo is later sent to live with his alcoholic, compulsive gambler father and his coke-snorting girlfriend in Las Vegas.

While in Las Vegas, Theo befriends Boris Pavlikovsky, and together they do what could best be described as “boy things.” Lots of pizza, lots of television, some smoking, and petty theft.

Throughout his movement, Theo always brings the painting with him. No one knows he took it; it’s both a burden and a treasure. The painting keeps him tied to his mother and the event that took her away from him, as well as keeping him locked in the present.

Although the book is long, it’s certain worth a read. The awards it has received should give it all the praise it needs. Tratt does a fantastic job of creating memorable characters and moments, including a scene where the boys are in pursuit of a group of dangerous gangsters. There are many lines in the book which will make you grieve with Theo as well as laugh with him.

“The Goldfinch” is a great book which will connect with the reader in many different ways, which with any luck will teach the reader a little about art as well about themselves.