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 “c****uts through the myth and caricature that has too often defined Giuliani” (Los Angeles Times).

Rudy Giuliani was hailed after 9/11 as “America’s Mayor,” a national hero who, at the time, was more widely admired than the pope. He was brilliant, accomplished—and complicated. He conflated politics with morality, made reckless personal choices, and engaged in self-destructive 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 high-profile role as Donald Trump’s 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 Trump’s 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.