Here’s what you need to know before diving in (and why it’s worth every page).

Theo Decker, age 13, survives a terrorist bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that kills his beloved mother. In the chaos, he steals a small, centuries-old masterpiece: The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius.

The Goldfinch is messy, beautiful, too long, and absolutely essential. It’s a book about a stolen painting that becomes a meditation on what we steal from ourselves—and what we keep.

If you’ve ever stared at a 700+ page book and thought, “I don’t have time for this,” I get it. But The Goldfinch isn’t just long—it’s long for a reason. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2014, Donna Tartt’s novel is a slow-burning epic that follows one boy, one painting, and a lifetime of consequences.