The Wizard of the Kremlin (s)

A riveting piece of contemporary fiction that gets to the heart of the Russian governmental machine, The Wizard of the Kremlin details the life and times of Putin's chief spin doctor.

Waterstones Thriller of the Month for January 2025

A new paperback edition of the acclaimed, bestselling novel - a stunning work of political fiction that reads like a thriller, about the rise to power of Putin's notorious spin doctor.

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 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...

MEDIA REVIEWS

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. Read this book and you will understand the Russian mind-fuck. Read it - John Sweeney

A captivating novel that sails close, perhaps too close, to reality - Financial Times, Books of the Year

A sophisticated fictionalization of the reign of Vladimir Putin - Rachel Polonsky, TLS, Books of the Year

His novel has become a guide - devoured by many western politicians - to the mindset of the Kremlin - Simon Kuper, Lunch with the FT, Financial Times

"You need to be credible, to get into a character's head and present their point of view... But it has to be entertaining, and it has to be convincing." His book succeeds on both measures - Peter Conradi, Sunday Times

[One of] the two finest books I read this year... Written from the perspective of Putin's chief strategist, [it] details how the privatisations of the 1990s set the scene for the return of the Tsar - Maurice Glasman, New Statesman, Books of the Year

It's easy to understand why it became a literary sensation: a slim, pacy book dealing with weighty, complex real world affairs, it will appeal to anyone seeking insights into Russia since the turn of the millennium - Irish Independent

So brilliant and clever about how power works in modern Russia... Absolutely gripping - Marina Hyde, The Rest is Entertainment

A novel exploring the inner workings of [Putin's] government that has captivated France...has become a popular guide for understanding [his] motives - New York Times

I doubt I have anywhere seen a cleverer portrayal of the Russian view of power, politics and the world, or a better explanation of how the colourless, secret police bureaucrat Putin swelled into the monstrous, fascinating thing he has become... Take this magical mystery tour of the Kremlin and see if it does not make you think. And what pleasure is greater than that? - Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail

A highbrow entertainment cast squarely in the Umberto Eco mould, The Wizard of the Kremlin is a political thriller propelled more by ideas than action... A propulsive novel ... [whose] central contention - that the fates of nations hang on stories spun by "reality show personalities" - remains uncomfortably relevant - Victoria Nelson, TLS

A chilling perspective on Putin's Russia... I am a dyed-in-the-wool Russophile, so this novel is right in my sweet spot. It called to mind Emmanuel Carrère's Limonov, the nonfiction of Peter Pomerantsev, the political thrillers of Robert Harris, the documentary films of Adam Curtis, and the cold-hearted logic of Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Grand Inquisitor. I loved Baranov's company, his pitch-black cynicism, his self-awareness and his sharp political analysis - Marcel Theroux, Guardian

A highly economical, well documented pageturner, describing twenty years in the corridors of Russian power, with a simple, seductive style and unmatched realism - Frédéric Beigbeder, Le Figaro

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

A brilliant reflection of the real-life distorting mirror of Russian politics - Daily Mail

The Wizard of the Kremlin takes us inside the mind of Putin's spin-master [and] has enjoyed phenomenal success... A fast, easy read, smartly translated by Willard Wood, which efficiently dramatises great sweeps of Russia's recent political history - David Sexton, New Statesman

A journey into the dark heart of power - El País

You cannot put this book down... Fascinating and suffocating. A clinical analysis of the art of authoritarian rule - France Inter

An absolutely extraordinary novel... You feel you're sitting on a sofa next to Putin, that you are inside his head - Patricia Martin, Le Masque et la Plume Of course this novel sheds a revealing light on current geopolitical events. But it will outlive them thanks to its unwavering lucidity and sparkling style - Le Monde des Livres

A staggering account of the mental makeup and aggressive logic of Vladimir Putin... A story of great literary and historical force that you must read if you want to understand what, from here, seems incomprehensible - Libération

This chilling and propulsive political thriller... has caused a sensation across Europe and rightly so - it is both a great novel and a savage commentary on modern Russia - Daunt Books

Remarkable... An imaginative account of how Vladimir Putin's Russia came to be what it is... As a novel, this is a rich and rather wonderful piece of art. As something which opens the way to an understanding of why Russia today is what it is, it is a book that all who care for the realities of world politics may read with advantage. It is a literary novel which has great historical and literary force, a reminder also that the novel at its best can offer an understanding of politics that goes deeper than any academic essay - Scotsman

A must-read for anyone wondering what Russian President Vladimir Putin is up to and what the Russian people have had to go through during his tenure...this powerful book...is a page turner - Foreign Policy

This is an intellectual rather than an action thriller, with the focus on machinations and mindset instead of straightforward menace - The Times, Best Thriller Books of the Month

Brilliantly tells the story of one of Putin's closest advisors... Unputdownable - Lire magazine littéraire

Empoli is a skilled storyteller and with such rich material to hand it is unsurprising that [The Wizard of the Kremlin] is compelling and convincing, fully deserving of its bestseller status...Its literary achievement elevates the novel above a reductive political analysis of the workings of the Kremlin, bringing it at times closer to Dostoevsky than an academic article or an op-ed - New Statesman

A factually-based and brilliantly narrated pageturner - Die Zeit

Propelled by its searing topicality, this modern, visionary book nevertheless has the timeless elegance of a classic - Les Echos

Smart, sharp, and timelier than ever - Shelf Awareness

[Da Empoli's book has been described] as a guide to Putin's mind. Such readings of The Wizard of the Kremlin are not wrong. The novel is more than this, however. It is also about how power and privilege can be a trap, and why politics cannot be suppressed by power, no matter how much tame intellectuals like Baranov try to justify their obedience to power and complicity with it - Irish Independent

Every good work of fiction is more interesting and more sophisticated than the phenomenon it describes. Exactly the case here. This novel makes the jug of spiders (that's what Kremlin really is) and the spiders within much more interesting and sophisticated than they are. A very good novel. - Boris Akunin

A portrait of Putin the Terrible... The Wizard of the Kremlin is one of those novels that make reality starker... Giuliano da Empoli has given the venality of power the most inscrutable but recognisable face in fiction - Open