Book Club - The Chancellor

Registration opens one month in advance.

Abstract

The Chancellor is a captivating biography of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the most important – and elusive – political leaders of our time. Acclaimed biographer Kati Marton sets out to pierce the mystery of Merkel’s unlikely ascent. Merkel has always been an outsider. A pastor’s daughter raised in Soviet-controlled East Germany, she spent her twenties working as a research chemist, entering politics only after the fall of the Berlin Wall. And yet within fifteen years, she had become chancellor of Germany and, before long, the unofficial leader of the West. With unparalleled access to the chancellor’s inner circle and a trove of records, Marton teases out the unique political genius that had been the secret to Merkel’s success. No modern leader so ably confronted Russian aggression, enacted daring social policies, and calmly unified an entire continent in an era when countries are becoming more divided. Again and again, she cleverly outmaneuvered strongmen like Putin and Trump, and weathered surprisingly complicated relationships with allies like Obama and Macron. Famously private, Angela Merkel emerges as a role model for anyone interested in gaining and keeping power while staying true to one’s moral convictions.

About the Author

Kati Marton is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including True Believer: Stalin’s Last American Spy and Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is former chairwoman of the International Women’s Coalition and has led several other non-government organizations focused on human rights and humanitarian issues. Marton was an award-winning former NPR correspondent and ABC News bureau chief in Germany. Born in Hungary, her father was a UPI reporter and her mother was an award-winning Associated Press reporter. The family came to the USA after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.