The Wizard of the Kremlin

THE TIMES BESTSELLER

'A great book, casting light on the creatures that crawl and slither behind the Kremlin's walls, on the mineral hardness of Putin, on the chaos engine that is his way of hurting us' John Sweeney

'An acute and timely dissection of Russian power, told through the eyes of a shadowy political advisor to Putin' Financial Times

'A fictional wandering through the dark corridors of the Kremlin' The Times, Biggest Books of the Season

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They call him the Wizard of the Kremlin.

Working at the heart of Russian power, the enigmatic Vadim Baranov-Putin's chief spin doctor-has used his background in experimental theatre and reality TV to turn the entire country into an avant-garde political stage.

Here truth and lies, news and propaganda, have become indistinguishable. But Vadim is growing increasingly entangled in the dark secret workings of the regime he has helped build, and now he is desperate to get out...

Propelling the reader from the fall of the Soviet Union to the invasion of Ukraine, this breathless story of politics and power has become an international sensation.



Giuliano da Empoli is an Italian and Swiss writer and political scientist living in France. He was once a senior advisor to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The Wizard of the Kremlin is his debut novel. It has sold more than half a million copies in France, where it also won the Grand Prix du Roman and was a finalist for the Goncourt Prize. It has since gone on to become an international bestseller, being translated into thirty languages across the world.