While engaging for the general reader thanks to its candid narrative of a life's path along an unusual career that took its author to remarkable destinations in Eurasia, this book will be especially welcome to specialists in the history of the Soviet Union/Russia during the last quarter of the 20th century because of its wealth of diary entries constituting two-thirds of the text. These capture the mindset of the author and his interlocutors at all levels of society. The book also will be useful to business school students and those embarking on careers in Emerging Markets, where the challenges of maintaining one's footing can be formidable and where the fastest moving objects in FMCG companies may be the managers themselves. For those who believe that disruptive technologies are something new, the author's discussion of his choices among industries for employment or to perform consultancy will be enlightening.
