Recent sightings of the 71-year-old Vladimir Putin tend to be described in the hushed tones of a concerned matron. Did you see his arm tremor? Why is he looking so puffy and pale? What’s all that table-gripping about? The desire to know what is going on behind the scenes at the Kremlin has grown exponentially since the war in Ukraine began over 18 months ago. Into this imaginative vacuum strides Giuliano da Empoli’s first novel, The Wizard of the Kremlin, an acute and timely dissection of Russian power, told through the eyes of a shadowy political adviser to Putin.
71歲的弗拉迪米爾•普丁(Vladimir Putin)最近現身時，往往會引發關切的主婦般的輕聲討論。你看到他的胳膊在顫抖嗎？爲什麼他看起來如此浮腫和蒼白？用手緊緊抓住桌子邊緣是怎麼回事？自18個多月前烏克蘭戰爭爆發以來，想知道克里姆林宮內部發生了什麼的願望呈指數級成長。朱利亞諾•達•恩波利(Giuliano da Empoli)切入這個激發想像力的真空的首部小說《克里姆林宮的魔術師》(The Wizard of The Kremlin)，通過普丁的一位神祕政治顧問的視角，對俄羅斯的權力進行了敏銳而及時的剖析。