Description

***As serialised in the Guardian***

‘Extraordinary’ SOPHIE ELMHIRST, author of Maurice and Maralyn
‘Sparkles with passion, greed and mystery’ OLIVER BULLOUGH, author of Butler to the World
‘Spellbinding’ LAURA MILLER, Slate
‘A jewel of a thriller’ CAROL WOOLTON, author of If Jewels Could Talk

When she was ten years old, Serena Kutchinsky’s father Paul was consumed by a wild dream. Heir to the legendary jewellery company House of Kutchinsky, he longed to create a jewelled egg more beautiful than any of Faberge’s masterpieces. It would be the largest and most spectacular in the world.

Standing two feet tall, made of solid gold, dripping with rare pink diamonds and housing a tiny enamelled library, the egg was astonishing. But when he failed to sell it, everything started to unravel. The House of Kutchinsky collapsed, Paul’s marriage fell apart, and within ten years he was dead. The egg was seized by its creditors and disappeared without trace.

For thirty years its location remained a mystery, until it began to obsess Serena, too. Why did her father risk everything for this outlandish creation, and where in the world was it – valued by now at GBP30 million? Intent on finding answers, she traces a story that begins in London’s East End, with the arrival of her great-great grandparents as Polish-Jewish immigrants, and takes her to the other end of the world. It’s a journey that transforms her understanding of her father, her childhood and herself.

‘A brightly painted tale, with everything you could want from a book about a dynasty of jewellers’ SUNDAY TIMES

Publisher Review

'Primed to seduce just about anybody who picks [it] up. [Serena Kutchinsky] comes from a family packed with story-worthy characters, people whose innate sense of drama she has clearly inherited and spun into an irresistible saga' -- Laura Miller * Slate * 'A tortured saga of feuds, betrayals and unsavory business dealings. Her tireless research and her bravery in facing her family's weaknesses and dishonesty is impressive. ... The story is compelling' * Wall Street Journal * 'Kutchinsky's Egg is a brightly painted tale, with everything you could want from a book about a dynasty of jewellers: safes stuffed with hash, armed robbers in monkey masks, private investigators, legal battles, secret affairs' -- Sunday Times 'A spellbinding debut ... The author unearths the story with a journalist's doggedness and a novelist's flair for detail, bravely seeking answers to childhood mysteries many would leave unsolved. This is riveting' -- Publishers Weekly Starred Review An extraordinary family story and a strange, poignant portrait of obsession -- Sophie Elmhirst, author of Maurice and Maralyn 'Kutchinsky's Egg is a brave and searching excavation of family myth and buried grief. With bold curiosity and palpable heart, Serena Kutchinsky traces how loss, obsession and silence can shape a destiny - and what it costs to tell the truth about the people we love. This is a memoir about inheritance in all its forms: the stories thrust upon us, the wounds we must carry, and the hard, luminous work of remaking truth from the wreckage left behind' -- Sophie Haydock, author of The Flames 'Vulnerable, questing and uniquely moving, Kutchinsky's Egg is a sparkling story of loss, love and redemption' -- Dan Richards, author of Outpost and Overnight 'A heady mix of intimate family memoir, refugee history and exploration of the gilded world of fine jewellery, Kutchinsky's Egg is a thrilling read. At its heart, is a daughter's bold and extraordinary quest to understand her father. This is a mesmerising tale, beautifully told. I could not put it down' -- Ariana Neumann, New York Times bestselling author of When Time Stopped 'Kutchinsky's Egg is a wild and fascinating trip, a vivid story of a father's obsession and a daughter's love, but it also explores how we live with our emotional inheritances, and how we ultimately make peace with them' -- Octavia Bright, broadcaster and author of This Ragged Grace 'A memoir of fixations, big diamonds, big money, big ambitions, fur coats and grand houses, a pushy matriarch, love and loss, internecine melees, the rise and fall of a family of skilled and aesthetically incomparable Jewish jewellers in Britain. The writing is both intimate and dramatic. The storyteller confides in the reader as she unearths buried truths, secrets and lies. Utterly brilliant' -- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, columnist for The i Paper and the Evening Standard