‘When it’s time to hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope.’

May 1907. Young Stalin – poet, bank-robber, spy – is in London for the 5th Congress of the Russian Communist Party. As he builds his powerbase in the party, Stalin manipulates alliances with Lenin, Trotsky, and Rosa Luxemburg under the eyes of the Czar’s secret police. Meanwhile he is drawn to the fiery Finnish activist Elli Vuokko and risks everything in a relationship as complicated as it is dangerous.

‘Original, adept and confident… What can I say, except that I wish I had written it myself?’ – Hilary Mantel

‘A deeply satisfying novel. Incisive, inventive, frequently very funny.’ – Clare Clark, The Guardian

‘Historical facts furnish May with a cast of legends to bring to life, and he does it with verve and humour’ – John Phipps, The Times

‘Reveals the texture of history as an all too human bricolage of private resentments, sexual slights and mixed motives’ – Rob Doyle, The Observer

‘Takes dark delight in the dangerous world of revolutionary double-dealing’ – Eithne Farry, The Daily Mail

‘A captivating thought-experiment that marks a consolidation of May’s powers as a writer’ – Alasdair Lees, The Telegraph