London is home to millions. Brick and mortar sell for dizzying amounts and that’s before you’ve begun to fill it with the finest furniture, antiques, art and staff. Gorsky has billions. No one knows how or what he does. He is an enigma. One day, Gorsky commissions a bookseller by the name of Nikola Kimović to fill his library. What follows is a tale of wealth, luxury and lost love.
Many have compared it to The Great Gatsby, and rightly so. Not just in plot but in style. A story of beautiful people beautifully told by our narrator Nick. He looks up to Gorsky as if he were a god. Gorsky loves the unobtainable Natalia, every decision he makes is for her. Nick is caught up in their world of excess. Naturally, money does not buy you happiness as the novel takes some dramatic turns towards the end.
I adored this novel, like Gatsby, it says a lot about our culture at the moment. Fitzgerald tore apart the America around him, Goldsworthy examines our London. Nick loves our London; he doesn’t see the grime or the decay, he sees it in all its glory and irony. The money that oozes from it. The workers with their own hopes and dreams that cater to the millionaire, billionaires and trillionaires every need. This is a tale of how the other half live.
