This novel by Russian novelist and screenwriter Vladimir Gonik is set in eleven countries around the world. Orchestra is based on documentary materials: the author has delved into the archives and met eyewitnesses, and now he recounts secret operations that took place across the globe in the second half of the twentieth century. The novel tells of certain little-known and mysterious events, some of which the author was personally involved in, and it is a story of extraordinary human lives, and of course, love...

Vladimir Gonik was born in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1939, and studied medicine in the Latvian city of Riga. He has been a foundry worker, a hospital orderly, a sailor on oceanic vessels, and a medic in the army. A keen athlete, he has practiced boxing, football, cross-country and downhill skiing, and he has served as a physician for Russian national teams and Olympic delegations in various sports. Alongside his other pursuits, he is a graduate of Moscow's Institute of Cinematography. He is the author of twelve screenplays and seven books, and his work has been recognized with international and Russian awards for cinema.