Captivating ... She comes from a family packed with story-worthy characters, people whose innate sense of drama she has clearly inherited and spun into an irresistible saga ... What makes Kutchinsky’s Egg so spellbinding is not the egg but the Kutchinskys themselves.
Kutchinsky uncovers a tortured saga of feuds, betrayals and unsavory business dealings. Her tireless research and her bravery in facing her family’s weaknesses and dishonesty is impressive. Her narrative, however, is marred by an overuse of observations in which she imagines what people felt and did. The story is compelling enough without this embellishment ... After overlong sections on her ancestors’ lives, Ms. Kutchinsky’s narrative comes alive when she describes her father’s creation of the egg.
Vivid ... A brightly painted tale, with everything you could want from a book about a dynasty of jewellers: safes stuffed with hash, armed robbers in monkey masks, private investigators, legal battles, secret affairs.
The book reads like a serial television drama ... Kutchinsky’s background in journalism shines through her pages, especially in the seamless way she recounts the history of London’s East End and the central mystery of the book: whatever happened to Paul’s egg? Although most of the story takes place decades ago, the publication of the book could not be more timely.
Spellbinding ... The author unearths the story with a journalist’s doggedness and a novelist’s flair for detail, bravely seeking answers to childhood mysteries many would leave unsolved. This is riveting.
