
The Showman
Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky
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Narrated by:
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Daniel Gamburg
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By:
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Simon Shuster
About this listen
Acclaimed journalist Simon Shuster gives us the first inside account of the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the perspective of President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team, who granted him unprecedented access.
Time correspondent Simon Shuster chronicles the life and wartime leadership of Volodymyr Zelensky from the dressing rooms of his variety show in Ukraine to the muddy trenches of his war with Russia. Based on four years of reporting; extensive travels with President Zelensky to the front; and dozens of interviews with him, his wife, his friends and enemies, his advisers, ministers and military commanders, The Showman tells an intimate and eye-opening story of the President’s evolution from a slapstick actor to a symbol of resilience, revealing how he managed to rally the world’s democracies behind his cause.
The book’s early chapters offer the first detailed account of Zelensky’s life in a nuclear bunker in the opening weeks of the invasion and the circumstances of his wife’s escape to safety with their children. Later, as the Russians retreat from Kyiv, we see Zelensky and his team emerge from the bunker and lead Ukraine in a series of crucial victories. The result is a riveting, up-close picture of the invasion as experienced by its number one target and improbable hero.
Clear-eyed about the President’s early failures as a peacemaker and his willingness to silence political dissent, the book offers a complex picture of a man struggling to break what he sees as a historical cycle of oppression that began generations before he was born. Even as the war drags on, Zelensky lays out his vision for its future course and, through his actions, demonstrates his strategy for countering the Russians and keeping the West on his side.
The Showman, as a work of eyewitness journalism, provides an essential perspective on the war defining our age. As a study in leadership and human resolve, its appeal is timeless and universal.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2023 Simon Shuster (P)2023 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall
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How did a once faceless bureaucrat, a man whose own wife said he was born under the sign of the vampire, become the idealized face of Russian manhood and its authoritarian leader? Deputy Mayor Putin examines the man behind the myth. We will explore how Putin’s formative years shaped and drove him and how the supporting cast of characters he gathered along the way helped him get to the Kremlin’s inner sanctum.
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Interesting
- By Lexi on 03-02-24
By: Maeve McQuillan
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The War Came to Us
- Life and Death in Ukraine
- By: Christopher Miller
- Narrated by: Christopher Miller
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the definitive, inside story of Ukraine's long fight for freedom. Told through Miller’s personal experiences, vivid front-line dispatches and illuminating interviews with unforgettable characters, The War Came To Us takes listeners on a riveting journey through the key locales and pivotal events of Ukraine’s modern history.
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The Execution of Willie Francis
- Race, Murder, and the Search for Justice in the American South
- By: Gilbert King
- Narrated by: Korey Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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On May 3, 1946, in St. Martinsville, Louisiana, a 17-year-old Black boy was scheduled for execution by electric chair. Willie Francis had been charged with murder; his trial had been brief; his death sentence never in doubt. When the executioners flipped the switch, Willie screamed and writhed as electricity coursed through his body. But Willie Francis did not die. Having miraculously survived, Willie was informed that the state would attempt to execute him a second time within a week.
By: Gilbert King
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Backfired: Attention Deficit
- By: Leon Neyfakh, Prologue Projects
- Narrated by: Leon Neyfakh, Arielle Pardes
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Original Recording
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ADHD may be the defining diagnosis of our time. According to the latest data, more than 10 percent of American children (that’s 7.1 million kids) have been diagnosed with ADHD. And the number of stimulant prescriptions for adults in their 30s has shot up nearly threefold since 2012. In recent years, this explosion in demand has combined with other factors to create a widespread stimulant shortage in the US. In the second installment of Backfired, cohosts Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes look at the unintended consequences of the ADHD industry, and trace the surprising path that brought us here.
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Avoid if recently diagnosed with ADHD as an Adult
- By Anonymous User on 10-05-24
By: Leon Neyfakh, and others
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Murder in the Gulag
- The Explosive Account of How Putin Poisoned Alexei Navalny
- By: John Sweeney
- Narrated by: John Sweeney
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning with the mystery of Alexei Navalny's murder in the Arctic Wolf penal colony in a remote part of Siberia, the book tellss the life story of the Russian opposition leader who was a perpetual thorn in the side of Vladimir Putin. It's a warts-and-all biography of Navalny, a highly charismatic but controversial figure who flirted with far-right Russian nationalists at one point, told by a larger-than-life journalist, based in London and Kyiv, who met Navalny twice.
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The poor reading distracted from the superb journalism.
- By whitecrow on 11-11-24
By: John Sweeney
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The Fight of Our Lives
- My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World
- By: Iuliia Mendel
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya, Iuliia Mendel
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In this frank and moving inside account, Zelenskyy’s former press secretary tells the story of his improbable rise from popular comedian to the president of Ukraine. Mendel had a front row seat to many of the key events preceding the 2022 Russian invasion. From attending meetings between Zelenskyy and Putin and other European leaders, visiting the front lines in Donbas, to fielding press inquiries after the infamous phone calls between Donald Trump and Zelenskyy that led to Trump’s first impeachment.
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Just Great!
- By Jim Kirby on 09-20-22
By: Iuliia Mendel
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The Man Without a Face
- The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin
- By: Masha Gessen
- Narrated by: Masha Gessen
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The Man Without a Face is the chilling account of how a low-level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and made his country once more a threat to its own people and to the world.
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A Preview of Authoritarianism in the USA
- By Jimmy O on 06-08-19
By: Masha Gessen
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Life After Power
- Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House
- By: Jared Cohen
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Former presidents have an unusual place in American life. King George III believed that George Washington’s departure after two terms made him “the greatest character of the age.” But Alexander Hamilton worried former presidents might “[wander] among the people like ghosts.” They were both right. Life After Power tells the stories of seven former presidents, from the Founding to today. Each changed history. Each offered lessons about how to decide what to do in the next chapter of life.
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Very interesting!
- By MsSew on 11-11-24
By: Jared Cohen
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No Country for Love
- By: Yaroslav Trofimov
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Seventeen-year-old Debora Rosenbaum, ambitious and in love with literature, arrives in the capital of the new Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Kharkiv, to make her own fate as a modern woman. The stale and forbidding ways of the past are out; 1930 is a new dawn, the Soviet era, where skyscrapers go up overnight. Debora finds work and meets a dashing young officer named Samuel who is training to become a fighter pilot. They fall in love, and begin to mix with Ukraine's new cultural elite.
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A past to vividly remember.
- By Marcela on 02-27-25
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Black Wave
- Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry that Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East
- By: Kim Ghattas
- Narrated by: Kim Ghattas, Nan McNamara
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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With vivid story-telling, extensive historical research, and on-the-ground reporting, Ghattas dispels accepted truths about a region she calls home. She explores how Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, once allies and twin pillars of US strategy in the region, became mortal enemies after 1979. She shows how they used and distorted religion in a competition that went well beyond geopolitics. Feeding intolerance, suppressing cultural expression, and encouraging sectarian violence from Egypt to Pakistan, the war for cultural supremacy led to many events.
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Unveiling the darkness of the Middle East
- By Matty D on 02-18-20
By: Kim Ghattas
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Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know
- By: Serhy Yekelchyk
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Ukraine's sudden prominence in American politics has compounded an already-widespread misunderstanding of what is actually happening in the nation. In the American media, Ukraine has come to signify an inherently corrupt place, rather than a real country struggling in the face of great challenges. Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know addresses Ukraine's relations with the West, particularly the United States, from the perspective of Ukrainians.
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Everyone Should Read This Book in 2022
- By Theo Horesh on 03-09-22
By: Serhy Yekelchyk
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Ukraine
- The Forging of a Nation
- By: Yaroslav Hrytsak
- Narrated by: Greg Kolpakchi
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the world witnessed the “creative, freewheeling, darkly humorous, and deeply resilient society” that is contemporary Ukraine. In this timely and original history, a bestseller in Ukraine, the historian Yaroslav Hrytsak tells the sweeping story of his nation through a meticulous examination of the major events, conflicts, and developments that have shaped it over the course of centuries. Hrytsak weaves a rich and detailed tapestry of a country in continual transformation.
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Bumblebee
- By Moonpie on 08-28-24
By: Yaroslav Hrytsak
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Patriot
- A Memoir
- By: Alexei Navalny
- Narrated by: Matthew Goode
- Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Alexei Navalny began writing Patriot shortly after his near-fatal poisoning in 2020. It is the full story of his life: his youth, his call to activism, his marriage and family, his commitment to challenging a world super-power determined to silence him, and his total conviction that change cannot be resisted—and will come. Patriot is Navalny’s final letter to the world: a moving account of his last years spent in the most brutal prison on earth; a reminder of why the principles of individual freedom matter so deeply; and a rousing call to continue the work for which he sacrificed his life.
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oh finish your pumpkin latte and go do something to save the world
- By Svetlana on 11-02-24
By: Alexei Navalny
Comprehensive and Balanced
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Amazing and very informative
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Respect and admiration
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Incredible reporting and writing
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Good reporting, non jugements
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Thorough…honest…inspiring
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Required reading for anyone who is paying attention to this war and taking a position.
The fact that this book could be published at all is encouraging. Free speech content that no doubt is going ruffle the feathers of many of our power brokers and political overloards.
Cuts through the war propaganda fog!
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Great development of personality
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Amazing Backstory
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Good Information
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