Description
A brave and revelatory account of how a small-minded, low-level KGB operative came to control the world's largest country and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress, making Russia once more a threat to her own people and to the world - now with a new preface
About the Author
Masha Gessen is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of several books, among them the National Book Award-winning The Future is History and the Samuel Johnson prize-longlisted The Man Without a Face. The recipient of numerous other awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Carnegie Fellowship, Gessen lives in New York City.
Reviews
A luminous study -- Luke Harding * Guardian *
Courageous and shocking -- Katy Guest, Books of the Year * Independent on Sunday *
Gessen fearlessly tells the story of the unlikely rise of Vladimir Putin * Big Issue in the North *
A clear, brave book... Gessen offers intriguing details of the scratching, biting, hair-tearing, undersized, brawling boy Putin, refusing to be bullied in the grubby back yards of Leningrad -- James Meek * Observer *
Gessen's engaging prose combines a native's passion with a mordant wit and caustic understatement that are characteristically Russian -- AD Miller * Daily Telegraph *
Bold, detailed, and eloquent -- David Evans, Books of the Year * Independent on Sunday *
Gessen conveys the atmosphere - whether of the last months of the Soviet Union, the chaotic years of Yeltsin, the strange transfer of the presidency to Putin or the disappointments of his period - more accurately than any recent chronicler of the period -- Mary Dejevsky * Independent *
[A] courageous, enlightening account... Despite the suppression of the media and the murder of critics and political rivals, brave voices like Gessen's, and those before [them], have helped shed some much needed light on Putin's "criminal tyranny" -- Lucy Popescu * Independent on Sunday *
A rivetingly combative biography... utterly chilling * Sunday Telepgraph *
A compelling and exhaustive portrait * Telegraph *
Brilliant -- Edward Lucas * Daily Mail *
Gessen is a talented and versatile journalist -- John Lloyd * Financial Times *
Gessen has written a brave book, demolishing the numerous myths and legends that have accumulated around [their] subject -- Luke Harding * Guardian *
[A] fiercely critical biography -- Anita Singh * Telegraph *
An astonishingly brave and eloquent book -- David Evans * Independent on Sunday *
Awards
Short-listed for Pushkin House Russian Book Prize 2013 (UK). Long-listed for Samuel Johnson Prize 2012 (UK).
Book Information
ISBN 9781803510491
Author Masha Gessen
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Granta Publications Ltd
Publisher Granta Publications Ltd
Weight(grams) 232g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 19mm