Because Donna Tartt only writes one book every 10 years or so, the arrival of any new novel by the American fictionist should be treated as a literary event by itself.

Her first novel, 1992’s “The Secret History,” was hailed as a revelation, and 2002’s “The Little Friend,” received much critical praise; both proved commercial successes. Now, 11 years later, “The Goldfinch” (Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2013, 771 pages) appears ready to continue Tartt’s acclaimed run on the shelves.

Usually narrated by a relatively young character, Tartt’s novels all center on an important death, with her books unwinding themselves with detail and intimacy around that event, unearthing secrets and social commentary. “The Goldfinch” is no different in that sense. Fourteen-year-old Theo Decker is a precociously smart and observant boy living happily in New York with his mother. But when his mother is killed in a tragic terrorist attack on a museum of all things, Theo’s life is plunged into a fitful uncertainty, moving from one state to another, from one would-be family to another.

All the while, Theo continues to deal with the loss of his mother and the guilt that came with surviving the attack: “I found myself looking out over a brackish wreck which was illuminated in a light so lucid, so heartsick and empty, that I could hardly remember that the world had been anything but dead.” He surreptitiously clings to a painting stolen from the museum, one of the titular Goldfinch. Meanwhile, he finds himself drawn to a tiny antique furniture shop down in the Village, to its eclectic craftsman Hobie and beautiful, damaged Pippa, incidentally badly injured in the aforementioned blast: “She was the missing kingdom, the unbruised part of myself I’d lost with my mother.”

“The Goldfinch” is a book that demands to be read slowly, asking the reader to take in the little clues that Tartt leaves behind. Like every piece of furniture and art that Theo gets obsessed about, the narrative is full of tiny dings and scratches, swallowed pain and hushed howls.  You’ll want to catch it all.

In particular, “The Goldfinch” articulates Tartt’s conflicted reflection on random fate and the design of destiny. Theo sees connections between both the good and the awful things that happen to him, asking himself why these things happen to him. People die—just not the ones you expect. Everything changes. In that sense, “The Goldfinch” features a life full of coincidences, but Tartt manages to make Theo’s life so real and flawed.

Embracing chaos

Tartt embraces chaos in the forms of Theo’s unusual friends—bad boy Boris, bespectacled Andy—but also the fluctuating nature of personal loss and comfort. Hobie’s store, Hobart and Blackwell, is constantly filled with a wonder and wariness reminiscent of Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations.” But even in his happiest places, Theo is haunted by the literal burden he carries with him—the missing painting. This is a more important twist than initially thought, as it connects Theo to the shady side of art sales.

“An object—any object—was worth whatever you could get somebody to pay for it,” says Theo, all grown up and now the shop’s less than scrupulous dealer.

Then, “The Goldfinch” really gets going—and Theo gets into real trouble in Amsterdam. “Was groundless, hopeless, unrequited obsession anyway to waste the rest of my life?”

The most obvious quality of “The Goldfinch” is simply its quality. Tartt can really write, her measured yet expansive paragraphs unfurling like gilt gold ribbons. The plot is almost magical because it seems to have no bottom. The characters are distinctive and their sentences snappily authentic.  Tartt brings up revenants from the pasts just when you—and Theo—least expect it. Sometimes, the unkempt life we live just likes to come up and smack us across the jaw. This book is full of those moments—and an appreciation for we believe to be valuable.

A masterpiece of dramatic construction and social aspiration, Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch” is enthralling and haunting, a sizable book well worth the 11-year wait.

Available in paperback from National Book Store.