The Goldfinch is such an interesting and incredible story that is gracefully stretched across nearly 800 pages. I approached it with great expectation considering it recently won the Literary Pulitzer Prize; when I started reading, I was immediately intrigued. Donna Tartt paces it well, transitions it even better and maintains an interest throughout.
It follows the life of a boy, at first, who is thirteen years old and experiences a traumatic explosion in a museum filled with memorable art. During this incident he loses the only person he is truly close to: his mother. His life journeys through many emotions: depression, loneliness, drugs, the trade of antique furniture and eventually explodes into a criminal world–not that it was his intention, of course. It happens in a slow but real way right before your eyes.
Books for the Soul 