The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: Discussion, podcast, and book club guide.

Are You Desperate for Someone to Talk About The Goldfinch With? We’ll Talk to You!

Are You Desperate for Someone to Talk About The Goldfinch With? We’ll Talk to You!

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The Audio Book Club
Discussing new and classic works.
Dec. 6 2013 9:25 AM

The Audio Book Club Steals The Goldfinch

Dan, Hanna, and Meghan love Donna Tartt’s big, big novel.

This month, Dan Kois, Hanna Rosin, and Meghan O’Rourke discuss Donna Tartt’s blockbuster of a novel about an orphan, an explosion, and a priceless stolen painting, The Goldfinch. Is Donna Tartt a literary writer or a potboiler writer? Is James Wood right when he complains that Tartt’s not writing the books she should be? And why is Tartt so obsessed with—and good at—writing about teenagers?

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Next month’s Audio Book Club will discuss James McBride’s National Book Award winning novel about John Brown, The Good Lord Bird. Read the book (or listen to it!) and join us for our discussion on Jan. 10.

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The Audio Book Club is sponsored by Audible.com.

Visit our Audio Book Club archive page for a complete list of the more than 60 books we’ve discussed over the years. Or you can listen to any of our previous club meetings through our iTunes feed.

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Podcast produced by Chris Wade, Abdul Rufus, and Andy Bowers.

Dan Kois edits and writes for Slate’s human interest and culture departments. He’s the co-author, with Isaac Butler, of The World Only Spins Forward, a history of Angels in America, and is writing a book called How to Be a Family.

Hanna Rosin is the co-host of NPR’s Invisibilia and a founder of DoubleX. She is also the author of The End of Men. Follow her on Twitter.

Meghan O’Rourke is Slate’s culture critic and an advisory editor. She was previously an editor at the New Yorker. The Long Goodbye, a memoir about her mother’s death, is now out in paperback.