‘Original, adept and confident... What can I say, except that I wish I had written it myself?’ -Hilary Mantel
May 1907. Young Stalin – poet, bank-robber, spy – is in London for the 5th Congress of the Russian Communist Party. As he builds his powerbase in the party, Stalin manipulates alliances with Lenin, Trotsky, and Rosa Luxemburg under the eyes of the Czar’s secret police. Meanwhile he is drawn to the fiery Finnish activist Elli Vuokko and risks everything in a relationship as complicated as it is dangerous.
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A seething, febrile world of plots, schisms and revolution.
" - Daily Mail
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Brilliant... A completely immersive historical novel that crackles with energy and revolutionary fervour.
" - The Bookseller
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Historical facts furnish May with a cast of legends to bring to life, and he does it with verve and humour.
" - The Times
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A captivating thought-experiment that marks a consolidation of May’s powers as a writer.
" - The Telegraph
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Takes dark delight in the dangerous world of revolutionary double-dealing.
" - The Daily Mail
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‘Reveals the texture of history as an all too human bricolage of private resentments, sexual slights and mixed motives.’
" - The Observer
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A deeply satisfying novel. Incisive, inventive, frequently very funny.
" - The Guardian
