--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Donna Tartt by Ann Patchett: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte45cdf67cdd442bc/69868c19e53aba43b24d23b5/donna-tartt-time-100-feat-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 23, 2014 # Donna Tartt by Ann Patchett  Peter Hapak for TIME It was 10 years between _The Secret History_ and _The Little Friend_, and then we had to wait 12 years for _The Goldfinch_. Where does Donna Tartt go all that time? Why do we never hear from her? Well, actually, I do hear from her because she’s my friend, and so I can tell you: she’s been working. For _The Goldfinch_, she constructed an enormous stage of art and violence, unspeakable beauty and staggering loss, then she lit the place up with her brilliance. While we’ve been carrying on with our lives, Donna has given herself over to the lives of her characters. If she took a break in the past 12 years, I don’t remember it. She could have easily made the Time 100 list for her tireless ability to work, but instead she wins this honor, and a Pulitzer Prize, for the finished product of her years of labor, this masterpiece of a novel. _Patchett, a best-selling novelist and essayist, is the co-owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70819/donna-tartt-2014-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70819/donna-tartt-2014-time-100/"},"headline":"Donna Tartt","datePublished":"2014-04-23T21:52:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T22:59:00.011Z","description":"The author whose characters' lives change our own","url":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70819/donna-tartt-2014-time-100/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte45cdf67cdd442bc/69868c19e53aba43b24d23b5/donna-tartt-time-100-feat-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte45cdf67cdd442bc/69868c19e53aba43b24d23b5/donna-tartt-time-100-feat-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70819/donna-tartt-2014-time-100/","name":"Donna Tartt"}}]}] ```