Once Upon a Time in Russia: The Rise of the Oligarchsâ A True Story of Ambition, Wealth, Betrayal, and Murder

One of the Wall Street Journal&;s Best Business Books of 2015

The bestselling author of Bringing Down the House (sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and the basis for the hit movie 21) and The Accidental Billionaires (the basis for the Academy Award&;winning film The Social Network) delivers an epic drama of wealth, rivalry, and betrayal among mega-wealthy Russian oligarchs&;and its international repercussions.

Once Upon a Time in Russia is the untold true story of the larger-than-life billionaire oligarchs who surfed the waves of privatization to reap riches after the fall of the Soviet regime: &;Godfather of the Kremlin&; Boris Berezovsky, a former mathematician whose first entrepreneurial venture was running an automobile reselling business, and Roman Abramovich, his dashing young protégé who built a multi-billion-dollar empire of oil and aluminum. Locked in a complex, uniquely Russian partnership, Berezovsky and Abramovich battled their way through the &;Wild East&; of Russia with Berezovsky acting as the younger man&;s krysha&;literally, his roof, his protector.

Written with the heart-stopping pacing of a thriller&;but even more compelling because it is true&;this story of amassing obscene wealth and power depicts a rarefied world seldom seen up close. Under Berezovsky&;s krysha, Abramovich built one of Russia&;s largest oil companies from the ground up and in exchange made cash deliveries&;including 491 million dollars in just one year. But their relationship frayed when Berezovsky attacked President Vladimir Putin in the media&;and had to flee to the UK. Abramovich continued to prosper. Dead bodies trailed Berezovsky&;s footsteps, and threats followed him to London, where an associate of his died painfully and famously of Polonium poisoning. Then Berezovsky himself was later found dead, declared a suicide.

Exclusively sourced, capturing a momentous period in recent world history, Once Upon a Time in Russia is at once personal and political, offering an unprecedented look into the wealth, corruption, and power behind what Graydon Carter called &;the story of our age.&;