The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt)

Aside from being perhaps 20% longer than it should have been, this is a remarkable book. Theo grows up from an anxious but happy boy through tragedy,neglect, and disturbance to a broken, wounded, but still coping man. He was drawn with dead-on accuracy at each stage of his scattered life, and I cared about him a lot. Other characters were less clearly drawn or less plausible, and some of the changes he went through were not as thoroughly justified as I would have liked, but on the whole it was engrossing and touching. I am unsurprised to learn that it won the Pulitzer.