The truant New Yorker Theo Decker is only 13 years old when a violent museum explosion kills his mother. Theo survives, but leaves the museum with more than he bargained for, including a dying man’s ring and last wish. Desperate for human connection, Theo returns the dead man’s ring to James Hobart, an antique furniture dealer who opens up for Theo a world full of restoration and warmth.
All too soon, however, Theo is ripped away and must begin a new life among strangers in Las Vegas. Facing trauma, social workers, and a derelict father suddenly back in his life, Theo struggles to make sense of a world collapsing around him. His painful attempts to find himself lead Theo into a swirling eddy of drug and physical abuse, amidst which Theo must carefully guard his own, hauntingly dark secret.
Donna Tartt poured over a decade into crafting this elegantly Dickensian novel, and she succeeds in spiriting the reader away through loss, friendship, drug abuse, art theft, and unrequited love. Tartt’s astonishingly acute character development and enticing plot submerge the reader in Theo’s tantalizingly broken world – allowing the audience to simultaneously rue and grow from Theo’s mistakes.
Tartt’s literary prowess is more evident in this novel than ever; her recurring plays on grammar and punctuation, as well as her expertly crafted dialogue, easily evince her literary savoir fair. Moreover, Tartt’s inspired diction conveys obscure moments and specific emotions in heart wrenching, gasping accuracy. All writers hope to achieve this divine descriptive ability, yet few succeed as Tartt’s flowing prose so eloquently does. Over and over again, the reader will fall in love with the words, characters, and themes of this lasting piece of fiction.