I read and reviewed this book in September / October, posted the review on StoryGraph and then promptly nuked the wrong account there and lost it.
So in lieu of the carefully constructed comments I made there, let's have a go at something coherent here.
This biography was written by an author who, whilst connected to Angela Merkel's circle and the author of a number of high profile biographies, didn't actually interview Merkel or get any input directly from her. So this is an observational biography as opposed to a detailed memoir (which Merkel is writing entitled Freedom). Didn't suffer from that differentiation at all. This was a careful, and at times forensic, look at the woman, her background, and the influences that lead to her careful, quiet, and determined leadership of Germany. Her childhood / teenage years in East Germany, and the influences, and thinking, that lead her first to a career in science and through to politics is laid out, as is the way that her training, and experience - including as the daughter of a firebrand Lutheran pastor - took her down the path to trusted, and loved leader and careful, steady hand at the tiller of the economic giant that Germany had become.
She's a fascinating woman, and was the leader that we needed at the time. Sadly she's the leader that we desperately need now - careful consideration, no self-aggrandisement, cautious and informed, whip smart emotionally and intelligently, she's an amazing woman. I've pre-ordered her 700 page personal memoir now as that's one I intend to keep and savour.
The Chancellor
Angela Merkel has always been an outsider. A pastor’s daughter raised in Soviet-controlled East Germany, she spent her twenties working as a research chemist, entering politics only after the fall of the Berlin Wall. And yet within fifteen years, she had become chancellor of Germany and, before long, the unofficial leader of the West.
In this “masterpiece of discernment and insight” ( The New York Times Book Review ), acclaimed biographer Kati Marton sets out to pierce the mystery of Merkel’s unlikely ascent. With unparalleled access to the chancellor’s inner circle and a trove of records only recently come to light, she teases out the unique political genius that had been the secret to Merkel’s success. No modern leader so ably confronted Russian aggression, enacted daring social policies, and calmly unified an entire continent in an era when countries are becoming more divided. Again and again, she cleverly outmaneuvered strongmen like Putin and Trump, and weathered surprisingly complicated relationships with allies like Obama and Macron.
Famously private, the woman who emerges from this “impressively researched” ( The Wall Street Journal ) account is a role model for anyone interested in gaining and keeping power while staying true to one’s moral convictions. At once a “riveting” ( Los Angeles Review of Books ) political biography, an intimate human portrait, and a revelatory look at successful leadership in action, The Chancellor brings forth one of the most extraordinary women of our time.
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