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Quick answer: If you loved The Goldfinch, try The Secret History, The Little Friend, A Little Life, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Demon Copperhead and Great Expectations. Each one offers a long, immersive story about loss, art, friendship or a young man adrift.
Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize winner follows Theo Decker, a boy who survives a bomb at the Metropolitan Museum that kills his mother. He walks away with a small Dutch painting, and it follows him through Manhattan, Las Vegas and Amsterdam. Readers love its detailed world, its wild friend Boris and its gorgeous sentences. These books share its literary sweep, its sense of art and its grief-stricken young men.
Table of Contents
Quick Picks at a Glance
| Book | Author | Style | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Secret History | Donna Tartt | Dark academia | readers who want Tartt's most loved novel |
| The Little Friend | Donna Tartt | Southern gothic | readers who want all of Tartt |
| A Little Life | Hanya Yanagihara | Devastating | readers ready for heavy grief |
| The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay | Michael Chabon | Big-hearted | readers who like art and friendship |
| Demon Copperhead | Barbara Kingsolver | Voice-driven | readers who loved Boris and Theo's chaos |
| Great Expectations | Charles Dickens | Classic | readers who want the book that inspired Tartt |
| David Copperfield | Charles Dickens | Classic | readers who like a whole life on the page |
| The Art Forger | B.A. Shapiro | Mystery | readers who like art crime |
| The Last Painting of Sara de Vos | Dominic Smith | Quiet | readers who love Dutch painting |
| Girl with a Pearl Earring | Tracy Chevalier | Historical | readers who love Dutch art |
| Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close | Jonathan Safran Foer | Experimental | readers who like a grieving boy in New York |
| The Art of Fielding | Chad Harbach | Sweeping | readers who like a long, patient novel |
| The Interestings | Meg Wolitzer | Long view | readers who like art across the years |
| A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | Betty Smith | Coming of age | readers who like big-city childhoods |
| Shantaram | Gregory David Roberts | Epic | readers who like a wild ride |
1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Classics students at a Vermont college cover up a murder.
Best for: readers who want Tartt's most loved novel.
2. The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
A Mississippi girl sets out to solve her brother's long-ago death.
Best for: readers who want all of Tartt.
3. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Four college friends in New York are shaped by one man's terrible past.
Best for: readers ready for heavy grief.
4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Two cousins become comic book stars in wartime New York.
Best for: readers who like art and friendship.
5. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
A boy in Appalachia survives foster care and addiction.
Best for: readers who loved Boris and Theo's chaos.
6. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
An orphan named Pip receives a mysterious fortune.
Best for: readers who want the book that inspired Tartt.
7. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
A boy grows up through hardship in Victorian England.
Best for: readers who like a whole life on the page.
8. The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
A young artist copies a stolen Degas and uncovers its past.
Best for: readers who like art crime.
9. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith
A forged 17th-century painting links a painter, an art historian and an owner.
Best for: readers who love Dutch painting.
10. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
A maid becomes the subject of a painting by Vermeer.
Best for: readers who love Dutch art.
11. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
A boy searches the city for answers after his father dies on 9/11.
Best for: readers who like a grieving boy in New York.
12. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
A baseball star's single error changes life at a small college.
Best for: readers who like a long, patient novel.
13. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Friends from a summer arts camp follow each other into midlife.
Best for: readers who like art across the years.
14. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
A bright girl grows up in poverty in early-1900s Brooklyn.
Best for: readers who like big-city childhoods.
15. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
An escaped Australian convict makes a new life in Bombay.
Best for: readers who like a wild ride.
How to Choose
Begin with The Secret History if you have not yet read it, since it has Tartt's best plot. If Dickens's influence was part of the fun, Great Expectations and David Copperfield are the source of Theo's luck, his tangled fortunes and his cast of strange guardians. Demon Copperhead offers a modern version of this story with a great voice. For art-world intrigue, try The Art Forger or The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, and go to Girl with a Pearl Earring if the Dutch painters were what stayed with you. A Little Life is the most emotionally difficult book here, so be prepared before starting it, particularly if you are sensitive to its themes of abuse.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Goldfinch about?
A boy survives a museum bombing, loses his mother and secretly keeps a priceless painting as his life unravels.
Did The Goldfinch win a Pulitzer Prize?
Yes. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014.
Is The Goldfinch painting real?
Yes. Carel Fabritius painted it in 1654, and it hangs in the Mauritshuis in The Hague.
How long is The Goldfinch?
It is over 750 pages in most editions.
Is there a movie?
Yes. A 2019 film stars Ansel Elgort as Theo.