Tartt's story follows a boy who loses his mother in a museum bombing, steals a painting (The Goldfinch, as painted by Carel Fabritius in 1654) in the confused aftermath and then spends his adulthood trying to unravel its mystery. Along the way he is briefly taken in by a wealthy Park Avenue family, moves to Las Vegas, befriends a colourful Ukrainian, binges on drugs, enters the antiques business with the partner of another of the bombing’s victims and chases the mystery of the painting and his family’s past to Amsterdam.
The book was snapped up for adaptation by Hunger Games producer Nina Jacobson and her Color Force company back in 2014, and is now based at Warner Bros. Peter Straughan, a man with some experience turning books into screenplays after Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and How To Lose Friends And Alienate People. Before he starts work on the film, however, Crowley is filling his time back on the stage, preparing to direct Cate Blanchett's Broadway debut in Chekhov re-imagining The Present.