Click for Source Image By Graeme Stirling
Twenty-two years after the publication of her first novel, Donna Tartt is enjoying a prosperous 2014 after being awarded the highest honour in American letters: the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The book in question, The Goldfinch, was published last year and follows on from Elanor Catton’s Man Booker Prize-winning The Luminaries in throwing brevity to the wind, clocking it at close to 800 pages. Unsurprisingly, the doorstop novel is an ambitious one, combining the sprawl of a lifelong bildungsroman with some curiously original plotting and a relevant, contemporary feel.
Twenty-two years after the publication of her first novel, Donna Tartt is enjoying a prosperous 2014 after being awarded the highest honour in American letters: the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The book in question, The Goldfinch, was published last year and follows on from Elanor Catton’s Man Booker Prize-winning The Luminaries in throwing brevity to the wind, clocking it at close to 800 pages. Unsurprisingly, the doorstop novel is an ambitious one, combining the sprawl of a lifelong bildungsroman with some curiously original plotting and a relevant, contemporary feel.
Click for Source Image The title comes from the 1654 painting of the same name by Dutch artist Carel Fabritius, which becomes an object of strange obsession for protagonist Theo Decker. In Tartt’s fictional realm, the work is on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art when Decker, visiting with his revered single mother, is caught up in a terrorist attack. When a bomb goes off and kills her and dozens of patrons, a dazed and shellshocked Decker misinterprets a cryptic message from an old man amongst the rubble and, believing himself to be under his guidance, steals The Goldfinch as he makes his escape. This seemingly soon forgotten anecdote, barely remembered by Decker once lucid, will in fact be a defining point in the bizarre and unfortunate life that the protagonist relays throughout the book’s considerable narrative. Chaotic family ties, dogged romance, theft, fraud and drug addiction are abound, all eventually repented for as, in the final chapters, Decker sets off on a voyage of redemption around the world to buy back the host of fake antiques he has sold to wealthy collectors throughout his slapdash career, reflecting upon people’s obsessive love for aesthetically beautiful objects and the lengths they will go to to protect them.
Having been selected by Amazon as the Best Book of 2013 and shortlisted for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award, The Goldfinch received near-universal acclaim in the run-up to its Pulitzer nomination. The immense amount of work, it seems, has paid off – not only does it dwarf its neighbours on the shelves, the novel took around ten years to write – the same rough incubating period as Tartt’s first two books – and had originally been slated for publication back in 2008. When her next one will appear is anyone’s guess, but in the meantime she has some serious laurels to rest on.
For your chance to win a copy of the The Goldfinch by Donna Tart, simply answer this question
Which of these is NOT a Donna Tart novel?
A) The Secret History
B) The Silver Watch
C) The Little Friend
Comment with the answer below and we'll select winners by the 26th of June! Good luck!
Entries will be accepted up until 23:59 25th of June. The winner will be announced and will be contacted for further details. Entrants must be over 18 to apply. Any issues will be at the desecration of I'm With Geek.
Having been selected by Amazon as the Best Book of 2013 and shortlisted for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award, The Goldfinch received near-universal acclaim in the run-up to its Pulitzer nomination. The immense amount of work, it seems, has paid off – not only does it dwarf its neighbours on the shelves, the novel took around ten years to write – the same rough incubating period as Tartt’s first two books – and had originally been slated for publication back in 2008. When her next one will appear is anyone’s guess, but in the meantime she has some serious laurels to rest on.
For your chance to win a copy of the The Goldfinch by Donna Tart, simply answer this question
Which of these is NOT a Donna Tart novel?
A) The Secret History
B) The Silver Watch
C) The Little Friend
Comment with the answer below and we'll select winners by the 26th of June! Good luck!
Entries will be accepted up until 23:59 25th of June. The winner will be announced and will be contacted for further details. Entrants must be over 18 to apply. Any issues will be at the desecration of I'm With Geek.
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