For anyone who thinks they know a lot about Angela Merkel; for anyone who knows nothing about Angela Merkel—pick up this book and do not put it down until the very last page.

Marton’s new biography, The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel, is a bit like Merkel herself: calm, dispassionate, not afraid to bore us. Many readers will find it a balm. It’s instructive to spend time in Merkel’s competent and humane company.

Marton carefully traces Merkel’s journey from the hinterlands of East Germany to the center of power in Berlin. A fluent writer, Marton seeks to unravel the Merkel mystery by penetrating the cordon sanitaire that she has erected around her personal life.

... an immensely readable and substantial contribution to the current Merkel anthology. This biography contextualizes both the public and private persona and makes clear that Merkel’s reign as chancellor goes well beyond the German borders.

This smart, readable biography chronicles Merkel’s 'remarkable odyssey,' weaving her career with the context of European politics of the day. The personal side of that journey is knit from a thousand threads of details revealed over the years. But even in an era when social media makes it seem possible to scrutinize every moment and every movement, the very private Merkel manages to keep part of herself out of sight..

Perhaps after Merkel has left office proper there will be a biography that will lift the veil on her private motivations; Marton’s diligently compiled but often overtly reverential chronological overview is not it. In spite of numerous interviews with close advisers, touted as 'circumventing the chancellor’s extraordinary need for control', there are few revelations here that cast a new light on her leadership.

... an impressively researched but, in many respects, devotional work—the reflection of a worshipful establishment consensus that will eventually seem absurd.

The English-speaking world has had a long wait for its first seriously good book on Angela Merkel, even though she has been chancellor for 16 years and on the front line of German politics for 31. The Chancellor, a biography published with much fanfare by the Hungarian-American journalist Kati Marton, is manifestly not that book.

Marton’s beautifully written, balanced and insightful biography should be enjoyed by anyone interested in global politics or a fascinating life story..

Marton’s problem is that most of the interviewees are as puzzled by Merkel as the rest of us. Quoting Hillary Clinton at length looks good, but you never get the sense that Clinton really knew the Chancellor. And maybe Merkel’s personal story isn’t that important. Perhaps there is no inner Merkel we cannot really see.

... engaging.

This is the best English-language biography of her rise from a tough and traditional family, through her career as a physical chemist in communist East Germany, to her current renown—but it is far from definitive. As with most traditional journalistic accounts, Marton’s book focuses a great deal on what Merkel said and did at various critical meetings, attributing her success to her intelligence and tenacity and her failures to her idealistic moral courage. The reader learns far less about the electoral, partisan, diplomatic, and technical constraints under which Merkel acted. The picture is further limited by the author’s curious decision to focus almost exclusively on German relations with the United States and Russia, thereby excluding economic diplomacy, climate change, China, the European Union, and the developing world—not to mention German domestic politics, about which the book says hardly anything..

The author effectively tells how Merkel is often acutely reminded of Germany’s past and strives to ensure that Germany is a moral leader, resists authoritarianism, and remains a part of the European Union and a key member of the global community.

... glowing.

... meticulous and even-handed.