Kutchinsky's Egg

A heart-stopping family memoir about art, obsession, and love as the author searches for the spectacular jeweled egg that consumed her father’s dreams and spelled her family’s downfall.

"An extraordinary family story and a strange, poignant portrait of obsession." —Sophie Elmhirst, New York Times bestselling author of A Marriage at Sea

When she was eleven years old, Serena Kutchinsky’s life changed forever. Her father Paul, who owned the high-end jewelry company the House of Kutchinsky, set out to create the world’s largest jeweled egg—one to rival Fabergé’s masterpieces. He succeeded, but at a ruinous price.

The Argyle Library Egg was astonishing: two feet tall, made of solid gold, and dripping with pink diamonds. But when Paul was unable to secure a buyer, the House of Kutchinsky collapsed, his marriage fell apart, and he sank into a spiral of drink and drugs. Within ten years he was dead. As for the egg, it was seized by business partners and disappeared without a trace.

Over time, the mystery of the egg began to eat away at Serena. Why did her father risk everything for the pursuit of this audacious dream? And where in the world was his extravagant, ill-fated creation, which had been lost for decades and was estimated to now be worth more than £30 million. Desperate for answers, she set out in search of the egg—and an elusive understanding of her late father. The journey begins in London’s impoverished East End where her great-great-grandparents arrived as Jewish immigrants from Russia—and ends in the most unexpected of places.

Echoing the intimacy of The Hare with Amber Eyes, Kutchinsky’s Egg is a spellbinding historical mystery that explores the glittering yet shadowy world of high-end jewelry, the rise and fall of a family empire, and the complex bond between a father and daughter.