Brilliant: The love story of a modern Russian woman - Maureen Barry

Beautiful Brilliant Curnonsky is as far removed from the Western world's idea of a Russian woman as she could possibly be. Raised in New York, she is elegant and sophisticated with a highly successful career as a diamond expert.

Yet every day as she arrives for work she sees displayed behind shatter-proof glass half of her priceless family diamond, the White Tsaritsa, with is flawed 'heart of truth'. Now the property of Fifth Avenue jewellers, it has been part of Russian folklore for centuries.

The other half is in the Museum of Tsarist Treasures in Leningrad and it is the dream of Minister Arkady Tverskoy, their 'number one in diamonds' that the two halves be reunited in Russia. To this end he travels back to her homeland and with her the White Tsaritsa. Brilliant's obsession to learn what she has always sensed - that love and the White Tsaritsa are inextricably linked - takes her on a romantic journey to self-discovery through contemporary Russia.

Maureen Barry has written a highly topical love story featuring the new breed of post-perestroika Russian women who can hold their own in the West.