Books by Candace Rondeaux
“My favourite, unputdownable nonfiction book of the last few months was Putin’s Sledgehammer by Candace Rondeaux. This is about the Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a hotdog seller from St. Petersburg who rose high but was ultimately killed after challenging Vladimir Putin and marching on Moscow in 2023. The book takes us through every step of that evolution, and is a jaw-dropping account of Russian mercenary activities in Syria, several African countries and Ukraine, featuring troll farms, PR campaigns and information warfare as well as gruesome murders and even cannibalism. Inevitably, you don’t get to know Prigozhin himself (or Putin, the man at the top of the pyramid), but it’s a very full picture of a world he built and operated” Read more...
Notable Nonfiction Books of Mid-2025
Sophie Roell, Journalist
Interviews where books by Candace Rondeaux were recommended
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1
Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China
by Linda Jaivin -
2
The Death of Stalin
by Sheila Fitzpatrick -
3
Putin's Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia’s Collapse into Mercenary Chaos
by Candace Rondeaux -
4
Shamanism: The Timeless Religion
by Manvir Singh -
5
Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History
by Vali Nasr
Notable Nonfiction Books of Mid-2025, recommended by Sophie Roell
Notable Nonfiction Books of Mid-2025, recommended by Sophie Roell
From the death of Stalin and the career of Putin’s chef to shaministic rituals on the Indonesian island of Siberut, Five Books editor Sophie Roell gives an overview of some of the excellent new nonfiction books that have appeared since April.
