Giuliano da Empoli is an Italian and Swiss writer and journalist living in France. He was once a senior advisor to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The Wizard of the Kremlin is his debut novel. It has sold more than half a million copies in France, where it also won the Grand Prix du Roman and was a finalist for the Goncourt Prize. It has since gone on to become an international bestseller, translated into twenty-eight languages across the world.

'A staggering account of the mental makeup and aggressive logic of Vladimir Putin... A story of great literary and historical force that you must read if you want to understand what, from here, seems incomprehensible' - Liberation'A highly economical, well documented pageturner, describing twenty years in the corridors of Russian power, with a simple, seductive style and unmatched realism' - Frederic Beigbeder'You cannot put this book down... Fascinating and suffocating. A clinical analysis of the art of authoritarian rule' - France Inter'An absolutely extraordinary novel... You feel you're sitting on a sofa next to Putin, that you are inside his head' - Patricia Martin'Of course this novel sheds a revealing light on current geopolitical events. But it will outlive them thanks to its unwavering lucidity and sparkling style' - Le Monde des Livres