{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476755507?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1476755507","authors":["Frances Welch"],"book_id":"9781476755502","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781476755502","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781476755502.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","description":"For historical aficionados and curious readers alike, this is the perfect ‘short life’ - gripping and hilariously funny, this biography sheds much-needed light on the life of the Russian icon: Grigory Rasputin. Grigory Rasputin, Siberian peasant-turned-mystic and court sage, was as fascinating as he was unfathomable. He played the role of the simple man, eating with his fingers and boasting, ‘I don’t even know the ABC’. But, as the only person able to relieve the symptoms of hemophilia in the Tsar’s heir Alexei, he gained almost hallowed status within the Imperial court. During the last decade of his life, he and his band of “little ladies” came to symbolize all that was decadent, corrupt and remote about the Imperial Family, especially when it was rumored that he was not only shaping Russian policy during the First World War, but also enjoying an intimate relationship with the Empress... Rasputin’s role in the downfall of the tsarist regime is beyond dispute. But who was he really? Prophet or rascal? A “breath of rank air...who blew away the cobwebs of the Imperial Palace’’, as Beryl Bainbridge put it; or a dangerous deviant? In this riveting and eye-opening short biography, Frances Welch turns her inimitable wry gaze on one of the great mysteries of Russian history.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781476755502","publication_date":"20141014","publisher":"Atria Books/Marble Arch Press","slug":"rasputin","subtitle":"A Short Life","title":"Rasputin"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"BIO006000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Lives in History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BIO010000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Political Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS032000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Russian History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}],"hint":[],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO006000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Lives in History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BIO010000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Political Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS032000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Russian History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Lives in History","score":1,"slug":"lives-in-history"},{"label":"Political Lives","score":1,"slug":"political-lives"},{"label":"Russian History","score":1,"slug":"russian-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Lives in History","Good for readers interested in history","Good for readers who enjoy Lives in History and Political Lives."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Fintan O'Toole"],"book_id":"9781324092872","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781324092872.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":13.689,"title":"We Don't Know Ourselves","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781324092872"},{"authors":["Josephine Wilkinson"],"book_id":"9781643130156","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781643130156.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":12.7537,"title":"Louis XIV","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781643130156"},{"authors":["Robert Morgan"],"book_id":"9781565124554","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781565124554.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":12.6435,"title":"Boone","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781565124554"},{"authors":["Helen Rappaport"],"book_id":"9781250067456","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250067456.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":11.6043,"title":"The Romanov Sisters","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781250067456"},{"authors":["Kamala Harris"],"book_id":"9781668211656","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781668211656.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":11.2569,"title":"107 Days","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781668211656"},{"authors":["Stefan Zweig","Cedar Paul","Eden Paul","M. 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