Read Of The Week (Sept 18 to Sept 24)

From the great storyteller of Russia, a spellbinding account of the stories that have shaped the country’s past — and how they can inform its present. No other country has been so divided over its own past as Russia. None has changed its story so often. How the Russians came to tell their story and reinvent it as they went along is a vital aspect of their history, their culture and beliefs. To understand what Russia’s future holds — to grasp what Putin’s regime means for Russia and the world — we need to unravel the ideas and meanings of that history. In The Story of Russia, Orlando Figes brings into sharp relief the vibrant characters that comprise Russia’s rich history, whose stories remain so important in making sense of the world’s largest nation today — from the crowning of 16-year-old Ivan the Terrible in a candlelit cathedral, to Catherine the Great riding out in a green uniform to arrest her husband at his palace, to the bitter last days of the Romanovs.

Orlando Figes is an award-winning author and historian, who has held teaching posts at Birkbeck College, University of London and Trinity College, University of Cambridge. Figes is the bestselling author of nine books on Russian and European history. His books have been translated into over 30 languages.