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A New Yorker Best Book of the Year

What happened to Rudy Giuliani

Andrew Kirtzman who has been following Giuliani since the 1990s answers that question in this masterful and engrossing The Guardian biography that cuts through the myth and caricature that has too often defined Giuliani Los Angeles Times

Rudy Giuliani was hailed after 9/11 as Americas Mayor a national hero who at the time was more widely admired than the pope He was brilliant accomplishedand complicated He conflated politics with morality made reckless personal choices and engaged in selfdestructive behavior A series of disastrous decisions and cynical compromises coupled with his need for power money and attention gradually ruined his reputation cost him political support and ultimately damaged the country

Kirtzman who was with Giuliani at the World Trade Center on 9/11 conducted hundreds of interviews to give us an insightful portrait of this polarizing figure from the beginning of his rise to his highprofile role as Donald Trumps personal lawyer Giuliani was a celebrated prosecutor a transformative New York City mayor and a contender for the presidency But by the end of the Trump presidency he was reviled and ridiculed after a series of embarrassing errors and misjudgments He was a significant figure in both of Trumps impeachments and ended up widely ostracized facing both legal jeopardy and financial ruin

This is the lively new biography The New Yorker of how it all began and how it came crashing down