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Putin’s éminence grise: The Wizard of the Kremlin, by Giuliano da Empoli, reviewed

Modelled on Putinism’s founding father, Vladislav Surkov, the protagonist of this internationally acclaimed novel pales by comparison with the real-life ideologue

Owen Matthews Owen Matthews
Vladislav Surkov, the model for Giuliano da Empoli’s protagonist Vadim Baranov.  Getty Images
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 15 February 2025
issue 15 February 2025

Occasionally a book is published, perhaps twice in a generation, which is so bad but internationally celebrated that one questions everything one has believed about literature. The Wizard of the Kremlin, written in French by the Italian political scientist Giuliano da Empoli, was awarded the French Academy’s Grand Prix de Roman in 2022.

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