First published 2016
Franklin Roosevelt faces his greatest challenge in 1944. The president receives a devastating medical diagnosis that threatens his ability to serve, yet he tells no one. Not his family, not his advisors, not even Churchill. As D-Day approaches and the war enters its final phase, Roosevelt must decide whether to seek a fourth term while secretly battling his declining health. He retreats to a southern plantation where a navy cardiologist examines him daily, weighing his duty against his mortality. Meanwhile, he pursues an ambitious diplomatic gamble, courting Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin through grueling secret journeys to Tehran and the Crimea. Roosevelt believes he can forge a stable postwar order, but the effort drains his failing body. The political master manipulates his party's convention and selects a new running mate with succession in mind. Throughout the campaign, he maintains his public facade while privately confronting the reality that each decision might be his last. Roosevelt tells himself he can resign if necessary, but his sense of duty compels him forward. The war, his presidency, and his life race toward their simultaneous climax as he struggles to complete his vision for America and the world.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, biography-memoir, political-thriller, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: duty, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Tehran, Crimea
Period: 1944
Audio CD · Random House Audio
Content warnings: terminal-illness