‘The Great Gatsby is Vesna Goldsworthy’s acknowledged model, and like the original this novel will surely come to define a society at a particular historical moment: London now, as its living flesh is turned to inanimate gold by the terrible Midas touch of uncontrolled international wealth. From this heartless world she conjures, as Fitzgerald did, a tale of piquantly corrupt innocence, and does it with such unforced style and narrative elegance that you’re led irresistibly on, as with some exquisite dish, from one perfect melting mouthful to the next.’

- Michael Frayn

‘The spell-binding story of a Russian billionaire setting up home in London's 'Chelski'. With wit and poetic verve, Vesna Goldsworthy explores our fascination with money, glamour, parties and sex and, ultimately, offers a haunting elegy to love.’

- Sofka Zinovieff

‘Here, at last, is the ‘Gatsby’ for today’s London – the holy city of the Russian super-rich. In a marvellously written, wickedly imagined novel, sometimes hauntingly sad and sometimes very funny, Vesna Goldsworthy evokes the loneliness which goes with sudden and gigantic wealth, as it falls upon men and women with no previous background of privilege. ‘Gorsky’ provides a crowded satire on the mob of hangers-on who follow the billionaires, and a clear-eyed panorama of Kensington and Chelsea as new money floods over old dignity.’

- Neal Ascherson

‘Entertaining and poignant, ironic and serious, Gorsky is both a literary homage and the work of a highly original imagination. Goldsworthy is brilliant on money, clothes. romantic love and decadent sex -- and on various kinds of immigrant species. A jeu d'esprit with a heart and mind.’

- Eva Hoffman

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 privileged access to the wealthy and the beautiful; a world filled with delectable books but fraught with danger...

‘The spell-binding story of a Russian billionaire setting up home in London's “Chelski”. With wit and poetic verve, Vesna Goldsworthy explores our fascination with money, glamour, parties and sex and, ultimately, offers a haunting elegy to love’ SOFKA ZINOVIEFF

An appealing debut novel for fans of Michael Frayn, Deborah Moggach, Jonathan Coe and Nina Stibbe: perfect for the Russophiles in charge of Waterstones and a dream come true for independent bookshops

Vesna is a major asset: seriously well connected in the literary world with a keen sense of fun, Vesna is excited to meet readers around the country

Readers Group and Vintage Classics link-up: Gorsky's depiction of rich, cosmopolitan London has links with the starry setting of F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

Foreign rights sensation: major pre-empts in Italy, Holland and Germany among others