Save the Date: January 19 Book Event with Kati Marton on Angela Merkel

Photo: Billy Bustamente (Marton)

Coming in January, UNA-NYC will host a special book talk event with Kati Marton.

In The Chancellor, a definitive biography of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Kati Marton details the remarkable rise and political brilliance of the most powerful and elusive woman in the world.

The Chancellor is at once a riveting political biography and an intimate human story of a complete outsider — a research chemist and pastor’s daughter raised in Soviet-controlled East Germany — who rose to become the unofficial leader of the West.

Marton set out to pierce the mystery of how Angela Merkel achieved all this. And she found the answer in Merkel’s political genius: in her willingness to talk with adversaries rather than over them, her skill at negotiating without ever compromising on what’s most important to her, her canniness in appointing political rivals to her cabinet and exacting their policies so they have no platform to run against her, the humility to allow others to take credit for things done in tandem, the wisdom to stay out of the papers and off Twitter, and the vision to take advantage of crises to enact bold change.

This captivating portrait shows a woman who has survived extraordinary challenges to transform her own country and return it to the global stage. Timely and revelatory, this great morality tale shows the difference an exceptional leader can make for the greater good of a country and the world.

In the fall of 2021, Chancellor Merkel, a pillar on the international stage, is expected to step down after a remarkable 16 years in office. This is sure to be a consequential change for Germany, Europe, and the world at large, and whoever takes her place will have very large (modest, practical) shoes to fill.

With this event on the horizon, bestselling author, award-winning journalist, and connected political insider Kati Marton’s biography couldn’t be better timed.

Therefore, we are pleased to announce the upcoming appearance of Kati Marton for a special event on January 19 to discuss her book — which is published October 26, so any interested readers now have a head start! UNA-NYC hosted Marton previously in 2012, when she discussed a book about the legacy of her late husband, Richard Holbrooke.