Gorbachev: His Life And Times

"Don’t judge a book by its … length. At 880 pages, and with an old photo of a Soviet leader on the cover, I was intimidated, too. But * Gorbachev: His Life And Times* flies by and is gripping. It reads less like a biography and more like a political thriller with drama, romance and – Russia being Russia – vodka. William Taubman has written what feels like the definitive book on one of the most transformative figures of the 20th century – and he has made it accessible and hard to put down."