How did Gerry Adams grow from a revolutionary street activist – in perpetual danger of arrest and assassination – into the leader of Sinn Féin, with intimate access to the British and Irish Prime Ministers and the US President? And how has he outlasted them all?  Drawing on newly available intelligence and scores of exclusive interviews, Malachi O’Doherty’s meticulously researched biography sheds light on the history of this extraordinary shape-shifter.  O’Doherty grew up on a 1950s Belfast housing estate, behind IRA barricades in his teens, and witnessed the start of the Troubles first hand; he is uniquely placed to expose the real man behind the myths in this compelling study. “Remarkable . . . a meticulously researched and engrossing biography that has to be among the most definitive accounts of Adams's life to date.” - Sunday Business Post “An important, penetrating, honest work that must be read.” - The Guardian