Jim Loughran’s novel, The Bratinsky Affair, was published on February 19 this year. Set in 1976, it is the first of a four-novels series that follows the adventures of Tom O’Brien, an investigative journalist who is also coming to terms with his identity as a gay man. 

Part of the story reflects the author’s own experience as a young man living in Paris and beginning to accept his sexuality. Among other sub-themes, the book explores exile and life as a refugee with Irina’s character, a survivor of the Russian Revolution who rebuilds her life from scratch. Along the journey of getting back her life, she loses touch with what is really important, including her love for the dazzling Suzy Solidor. 

When Irina’s dramatic death becomes international news, Tom O’Brien sees it as an opportunity to advance his career. So he meets Olga, Irina’s granddaughter, and together the pair retrace Irina’s steps as they are drawn into a quest to find a missing family heirloom – a mystery which has already claimed three lives.

In an interview with GCN, Loughran explained how The Bratinsky Affair “is a story about the choice we make and the price that every choice entails.”

Brian de Breffny, self-styled Baron de Breffny and Count O’Rourke, was the real-life soldier that inspired Tom O’Brien’s journey. Popularly known as the descendant of an Irish aristocratic family who in the seventeenth century fled persecution to make their fortunes in Russia, Baron de Breffny was in reality the bisexual son of an East End of London taxi driver who had adopted a more glamorous persona for himself.

There was something enchanting about the romantic tale of this family of exiled Irish soldiers who had found success in imperial Russia. So Loughran started researching. “When I started digging I found that the story was largely true,” he explained. “Count Joseph Cornelius O’Rourke did serve in the Russian imperial army and had been awarded titles, land and serfs […].  A perfect backstory!” 

There was only one thing missing: “I just needed a victim for my murder mystery, and so was born Countess Irina Bratinsky, née O’Rourke de Breffny, glamorous exile and dealer in the works of Fabergé.” In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Fabergé was a fine gold and enamelware made in St. Petersburg, largely for the Russian court and royal families. 

The pages of The Bratinsky Affair dive into human nature worries and profound life matters. “As human beings, we are all motivated by the desire for love and the need to belong. Everything depends on the choices we make.

“As a refugee, Irina loses the world she grew up in and loses herself in her search for money and status. With a failed marriage and war on the horizon, Irina is caught between her own needs and her duty to her family. When the dazzling Suzy Solidor comes into Irina’s life, it’s like the collision of two planets”, explained Loughran. “Irina’s tragedy is that in her relentless pursuit of success and status, she lets the people who really matter slip through her fingers, including Suzy”, he continued. 

Among the portrayal of these internal struggles of navigating through life, the book includes many LGBTQ+ themes. Loughran’s main characters are queer, although he said that “initially the plan was for Tom and Olga to have a relationship but that didn’t work.”

“In the end, he had to be gay. In part, this is because parts of Tom’s story reflected my own experience as a young gay man coming to terms with my sexuality in Paris in 1976 and bits of my own story kept filtering into Tom’s story.”

As Loughran reflects on his journey, the narrative follows Tom teaming up with Olga to investigate Irina’s death. The investigation takes them to Paris and then to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. “It is a journey of discovery for Tom, who begins to feel that he can spread his wings and be himself,” Loughran added.  

The Bratinsky Affair is not just an adventure story. Jim Loughran’s writing reflects his advocacy for human rights. As somebody who worked in human rights for 35 years, Loughran remembers his time at the Amnesty International Council and the many cases he learned of people who were refused the opportunity to apply for asylum and were in danger of being immediately sent back.

“In almost every case there was the pain of exile, of being separated from friends and family and in many cases the fear of being sent back into danger. […] You can be a distinguished academic or politician in your own country but when you arrive as a refugee for many people you are just another beggar looking for a handout. I drew on this to describe Irina’s escape from Russia and her struggle to rebuild her life in the post-war Paris of the 1940s”, he shares. 

In addition to his queer characters, The Bratinsky Affair also reflects Loughran’s contribution to giving visibility to LGBTQ+ literature, especially regarding the current pushback against LGBTQ+ rights.

He recalls being at the AI Council meeting in Yokohama that decided to extend the mandate of the organisation to include sexual orientation: “I remember the resistance: the claims that this would damage the image and credibility of the organisation. I remember the worries of the delegates who were getting calls telling them that if they supported this resolution they might as well not bother coming home. Maybe we in the human rights movement were complacent. We thought things had changed irrevocably. They hadn’t.”

“Death and decay is a normal part of life but when people like Trump and his international allies deliberately take a wrecking ball to the entire system of human rights protection, it makes me really angry, especially given that their only motivation is money and power”, he continued.

As book banning is becoming more common, having access to LGBQT+ literature is crucial for Loughran because he believes books allow us to discover our secret selves.  

“Equally books can be used as tools of repression to reinforce stereotypes and shame people into silence. This is why it is so important to have gay characters who live life on their own terms”, he concluded. 

After his long professional trajectory that includes being a teacher, working in the advertising field, and becoming Head of Media for two international organisations, his best advice for his younger self would be, “Follow your instincts.”

“When you start writing one of the major challenges to overcome is the whole issue of self-doubt. Getting this book deal is a huge validation and an incentive to keep going. It’s also terrifying as when you put yourself out there you’re vulnerable to those people who delight in taking others down,” he reflects. 

The Bratinsky Affair is now available and has been published by Sharpe Books, one of the largest publishers of historical fiction in the UK.