A review by danikass
The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen

5.0

this is an excellent book. i hadn't realized just how little the world knows about putin, how strange and sly his rise to power had been, and how fast and aggressively he was able to consolidate power, and how he was able to get away with it. this book is 10 years old already, but it serves as a great foundation for anyone trying to understand putin. masha gessen is an excellent writer, and she made a book about such heavy and complex topics easy to read and absorb. it was also really disappointing to see the final chapter end on such a hopeful note, and realize that things had only gotten much, much worse since then.