Vesna Goldsworthy Livres

An examination of Balkan identity in cultural media.

'A book so full of steel and compassion that it stands glitteringly apart' Rachel Cusk Milena is a Red Princess living in a Soviet Satellite state in the 1980s. She enjoys limitless luxury and limited freedom; the end of the Cold War seems unimaginable. When she meets Jason, a confident British poet, Milena is appalled by his political naivety and his poor choice of footwear. Still, they fall into bed together, and before long Milena is secretly planning to defect to Britain. 1980s London defies her privileged expectations. The rented flat is grim and the food is disgusting but she is with the man she loves and there are no hidden cameras to record her every move. But then Milena discovers that Jason's idea of freedom hurts even more... With sharp wit and tender precision, Vesna Goldsworthy unpicks the failures of family and state. Iron Curtain is a sly, elegant human drama that challenges the myths we tell ourselves. 'A wonderful, perfectly-pitched novel- full of delightful intrigue and wry insight about the human predicament and its unique tensions' William Boyd

Exceptional. If there has been a more honest, calm, and profoundly moving memoir written in the last few years, then I've missed it.-Times Literary Supplement

'A beautiful haunting novel... looking at a familiar London through a frosty, snowy lens. Albertine, the wife of a British army officer often abroad on covert government business, finds herself increasingly lonely. Eager to distract herself with work, she takes a job as companion to the mysterious 'Monsieur Ka', a Russian emigre.

London dances to the tune of Gorsky's billions. The most enigmatic of oligarchs, Gorsky has been led to the city by his love for Natalia, whom he first knew in Russia. That she is now married to an Englishman is an inconvenient detail. Gorsky desires and gets the best of everything. His mansion by the Thames is set to make Buckingham Palace look like an ungainly box by a roundabout. At its heart will be a grand library, denoting taste and breeding. Now he just needs the books. When Gorsky's armour-plated car halts in front of a down-at-heel bookshop, the startled young man behind the till receives the commission of a lifetime. The bookseller suddenly gains access to the wealthy and the beautiful; a world filled with books but fraught with danger

En stor roman om kærlighed, om myter vi bliver ved med at fortælle, både i familier og i politik, om angsten ved at fortælle sandheden og de konsekvenser, det har for alle