The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky

Reporting for Time, Shuster began to cover Volodymyr Zelensky shortly before his election as president of Ukraine, in 2019, and therefore had unique access to him when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. In this illuminating and gripping book, he lauds Zelensky’s amazing bravery and improbable transformation from showman to wartime national leader. He appreciates Zelensky’s political savvy in delegating military decisions to his generals and focusing on what he can do best: capturing the attention of the public, now on a global scale. Zelensky’s messaging helped Ukraine dominate the news and convince Western leaders to deliver desperately needed military aid to his country. Yet Shuster’s book is not just praise: he also points out Zelensky’s intolerance of political competition. In 2021, the president shut down the TV channels controlled by his formidable Moscow-backed rival Viktor Medvedchuk. A few months into the war, Zelensky grew suspicious that the incredibly popular military commander Valery Zaluzhny was entertaining his own political ambitions. By late 2023, after the book had been written, tensions between Zelensky and Zaluzhny spilled out into the open.