This award-winning book by journalist and art critic Laura Cumming blends personal memoir with a meditation on the Dutch Golden Age of art, centering on the elusive painter Carel Fabritius, best known for his 1654 painting 'The Goldfinch.'

Some artworks arrive in our lives like a thunderclap, changing our perspective on the world.

Art critic Laura Cumming experienced this intense impact when, during a tumultuous period of her life, she first saw a small work by Dutch painter Carel Fabritius.

Much of Fabritius' work is thought to have been lost in an explosion at a gunpowder factory in the city of Delft in 1654, which killed the painter and destroyed his studio, leaving only a few luminous works.

Cumming uses the catastrophic Delft explosion, which earned the name the Delft Thunderclap, to reflect on Dutch art of the 17th century, bringing together her pursuit of the mysterious figure of Fabritius with memories of her father.