Zoia's Gold: A Novel

Elegantly written and exhaustively researched, this is a cracking read: atmospheric, original and increasingly pacey as it goes on. The fact that Madam Zoia was a real person adds verve to the tale. The Paris part of the story is a highlight, but the whole last third of the book is an absolute delight. As a PS: after I had devoured the novel, I did some Internet research and found some great photogrpahs and background information on Zoia.

In 2000 London, art dealer Marcus Elliot is hired to write the catalog on the sale of works by the Russian-born artist Madame Zoia. The "painter on gold" is considered the last known survivor of the Bolshevik Court who died one year earlier in Stockholm. Marcus studies her work and her papers as he learns that the Russian painter Zoia "Madame Zoia" Korvin-Krukovskyas was born in 1903 Russia into an aristocratic family. In 1917, the Bolsheviks incarcerated her as they did any of the aristocracy they captured during the Revolution. A communist admirer got her free with her fleeing to Sweden before going to Paris and ultimately returning to live the rest of her life in Sweden. This is an interesting biographical fiction work of Madame Zoia who proved you can go home when Yeltsin welcomed a show on her works in Moscow in 1993. The story line is at its best when it focuses on Madame Zoia's life in Paris, North Africa and Sweden whether it is through her letters of Marcus' musings filling gaps of knowledge. A subplot involving Marcus's family is well written, but feels intrusive from the prime theme of ZOIA'S GOLD that of an entertaining portrayal of a fascinating twentieth century artist, the last known living link to the Tsars. Harriet Klausner