CONSPIRATOR

UK Reviews

In Helen Rappaport’s vivid account of this often neglected period, we finally have a worthy counterpart to Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Young Stalin.

New Statesman

A fine book that represents [Lenin] afresh by concentrating on his life before achieving power. The result is a dramatic and atmospheric tale.

Times Literary Supplement

Rappaport’s vivid account of Lenin’s time outside Russia reveals the frequent lows and occasional highs of his exile and the toll it took on him … He had but one chance to escape the world of paranoia and conspiracy in which he had operated for so long, which Rappaport evokes so successfully.
Sunday Times

A fascinating look at Lenin during the murky 17 years he spent exiled in Europe before the Revolution … all explored with gusto.

Telegraph

Rappaport [is] good at compiling material from diverse sources as she chronicles Lenin’s exile in London, Paris, Munich, Switzerland, Finland and Poland. Her Lenin is neither the long-suffering saint of Soviet myth nor the robot revolutionary painted by his enemies.

Guardian

Conspirator draws a lively portrait of a driven man dedicated to his practical and theoretical work. … A fine writer, Rappaport has a cinematic touch when she takes us along Lenin’s daring escape across the ice in Finland.

History Today

Helen Rappaport presents an exhaustive...account of this period when the great Bolshevik (at times, almost the only Bolshevik) and his wife Nadya hopped from one European city to another, dodging secret policemen, living from hand to mouth and tirelessly writing, debating, organising, plotting, plotting, plotting . . .

Scotsman

Rappaport’s revealing account of Lenin’s 17 years in exile … opens up a new window onto an iconic figure… it strips away the dry and hackneyed details of Lenin’s official life during these years and reveals the real man. … She gets as near to the heart of this enigmatic man as is humanly possible as well as providing a memorable portrait of a revolutionary leader in the making … Lenin as you’ve never seen him before.

Lancashire Evening Post

Magnificent … Rappaport’s account of Lenin’s earlier, often neglected decades is well researched, fluently written and something of a triumph.

The Tablet

Impressively researched. … Conspirator evokes Lenin and the atmosphere in which he moved in striking detail, often with a rather dramatic flourish.

Irish Times

US REVIEWS