The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin

Description

When Vladimir Putin, an unimportant, low-level KGB operative, was rushed to power by a group of Oligarchs in 1999, he was a man without a history. Within a few brief years, Putin had dismantled the country's media, wrested control and wealth from the country's burgeoning business class, and decimated the fragile mechanisms of democracy. Virtually every obstacle to his unbridled control was removed and every opposing voice silenced, with political rivals and critics driven into exile or to the grave. Drawing on information and sources no other writer has tapped, Masha Gessen's fearless account charts Putin's rise from the boy who had scrapped his way through post-war Leningrad schoolyards, to the 'faceless' man who manoeuvred his way into absolute - and absolutely corrupt - power.

Masha Gessen is a journalist who has written for Slate, the New Republic, the New York Times and other publications. She is the author of several books, including Dead Again, Two Babushkas and Blood Matters: A Journey Along the Genetic Frontier. She lives in Moscow.

Courageous and shocking -- Katy Guest, Books of the Year * Independent on Sunday * A luminous study -- Luke Harding * Guardian * 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 her, 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 her subject -- Luke Harding * Guardian * [A] fiercely critical biography -- Anita Singh * Telegraph * An astonishingly brave and eloquent book -- David Evans * Independent on Sunday *