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Canbury Press pre-empts first Zelensky biography written for a Western audience
Canbury Press has pre-empted a book by Steven Derix with Marina Shelkunova, billed as the first biography of Ukraine’s President Volydymyr Zelensky to be written for a Western audience.
M.d. Martin Hickman secured world English language rights, excluding North America, for Zelensky: Ukraine’s President and His Country from the Dutch publisher Alfabet, for publication next month. The book is translated by Brent Annable. German and Norwegian publishers have also acquired translation rights.
The publisher explained: "The authors have the expertise and cultural knowledge to tell the story well. From 2014 to 2020, the lead author, Steven Derix, was Russia, Belarus and Ukraine correspondent for the Dutch quality newspaper NRC, for which Russian-speaker Marina Shelkunova is a researcher and co-ordinator.
“At 256 pages, the book reveals Zelensky’s battle to free his country from oligarch control, having risen to power off the back of a TV show playing a history teacher who wants to end corruption. It also deals with allegations against the Ukrainian president that he kowtowed to US President Donald Trump and was involved in the secret offshoring of millions of dollars.”
Hickman said: “This is a concise, high-quality biography of a hero of the free world. The authors have done a superb job in weaving together Zelensky’s extraordinary life story with the wider history of Ukraine and its vexed relationship with Russia.
“Zelensky is far from a hagiography, but Ukraine’s leader nonetheless comes across as an inspiring figure. This is an ideal ‘start here’ book for anyone who wants to know more about this charismatic head of state and why Russia would invade his country.”
