The Man Without a Face

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 *