Two worlds on the brink of change in a love story doomed to disaster

‘A book so full of steel and compassion that it stands glitteringly apart’ Rachel Cusk

Milena is a Red Princess living in a Soviet Satellite state in the 1980s. She enjoys limitless luxury and limited freedom; the end of the Cold War seems unimaginable.

When she meets Jason, a confident British poet, Milena is appalled by his political naivety and his poor choice of footwear. Still, they fall into bed together, and before long Milena is secretly planning to defect to Britain.

1980s London defies her privileged expectations. The rented flat is grim and the food is disgusting but she is with the man she loves and there are no hidden cameras to record her every move. But then Milena discovers that Jason’s idea of freedom hurts even more…

With sharp wit and tender precision, Vesna Goldsworthy unpicks the failures of family and state. Iron Curtain is a sly, elegant human drama that challenges the myths we tell ourselves.

‘A wonderful, perfectly-pitched novel- full of delightful intrigue and wry insight about the human predicament and its unique tensions’ William Boyd