The Showman by Simon Shuster

The Showman

by Simon Shuster

View on Goodreads
Memoir & BiographyPolitics & Power

Shuster was inside Volodymyr Zelensky's presidential compound in Kyiv as Russia's full-scale invasion unfolded, with extensive access to the president and his inner circle through the war's first year. You follow a comedian and TV actor from entertainment through his political rise to the moment that made him a wartime leader.

Core ideas
  • Inside the compound: The account is built from time inside the presidential compound during the invasion and interviews with Zelensky and his senior advisers.
  • From stage to war: Flashbacks trace his path from comedy and entertainment through his political rise, set against the first year of fighting.
  • The first year: Events run from the opening of the invasion and the battle for Kyiv to Bucha and the siege of Mariupol.
Published2024
Pages384
ISBN9780063307421
ReadDec 2024

Connected to 4 other books

See the connection map
War by Bob Woodward War Bob Woodward Read Oct 2024 Two wars at once, in Ukraine and Gaza, and a White House trying to keep either from becoming a wider or nuclear conflict. The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and his Spies are Undermining America and Dismantling the West by Malcolm W. Nance The Plot to Destroy Democracy Malcolm W. Nance Read Sep 2024 Voter databases hacked, Democratic officials' emails leaked, bots spreading pro-Trump disinformation: in Nance's account, 2016… Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare by John Lechner Death Is Our Business John Lechner Read Dec 2025 Wagner looks like a uniquely Russian invention. The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin by Steven Lee Myers The New Tsar Steven Lee Myers Read Feb 2023 From a poor Leningrad childhood and the KGB to near-total control of the Russian state.