Steadfast leader in a shaky world

Merkel didn't talk to Marton for this book. But she has doggedly retraced Merkel's trail, and the story she brings is a good one

The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel

Author: Kati Marton

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster

Price: $30

Pages: 344

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is famous for her plain but direct style. “I have no charisma,” she once complained to Tony Blair, “and I’m not good at communicating.”

She was wrong on both counts. Her anti-exuberance, in a world gone mad, has grown magnetic. As for communication, her droll mien — those imperceptible smiles, those subtly wrinkled eyebrows — speaks volumes.

When she shared daises with Donald J Trump, she would roll her eyes toward him incredulously, as if he were belching up a series of detergent pods.

Merkel