It was a piece of business that comes along once in a lifetime. If you are lucky. A captivating tale of big money, Russian beauty and good books.

Baileys Longlist 2016

"Evocative, captivating and acutely observed" -- Patricia Nicol Sunday Times "Clever... entertaining... elegant" -- Rose Wild The Times "It's surprising there haven't been more novels drawing on London's fascination with Russian oligarchs. But how to write about them without it all seeming a bit Jackie Collins? Vesna Goldsworthy has hit on the perfect solution with her witty novel Gorsky" -- Viv Groskop Spectator "This is the most enjoyable fiction I've come across this year. Gorsky is engaging and, best of all...manages to cast London in a new and softer light. I defy anyone who revelled in Fitzgerald's original not to have fun with Goldsworthy's attempt to transpose arguably the greatest American novel back to the old world" -- Peter Carty Financial Times "Written with such narrative elegance that you're led irresistibly on, as with some exquisite dish, from one perfect melting mouthful to the next" Michael Frayn

Vesna Goldsworthy was born in Belgrade in 1961 and has lived in London since 1986. She writes in English, her third language. She has authored three widely translated books: a memoir, Chernobyl Strawberries; Inventing Ruritania, on the shaping of cultural perceptions of the Balkans; and the Crashaw Prize-winning poetry collection, The Angel of Salonika. Gorsky is her first novel.