Kati Marton has had remarkable access to those around Merkel, researching back to her school days in Soviet-controlled East Germany and delivering material that has never before been aired publicly. It makes for engrossing reading, revealing Merkel's striking model of shrewd, strong leadership and teasing out the secrets of her success: how did the daughter of a pastor become the unofficial leader of the West? A wonderful biography of Angela Merkel, the famously unknowable Chancellor.