One of seven children raised in abject poverty by a single parent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva acquired his politics on the hard road of personal suffering, inspired by the selfless example of his mother. He started work at the age of eight and didn't learn to read for another two years. At twenty, he lost his wife and child. A union organizer in the 1980s, when Brazil still languished under military dictatorship, Lula helped form the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT or Brazilian Workers' Party). His first steps in politics were faltering. He came last running for governor of São Paulo and would have retreated from electoral politics entirely were it not for the intercession of Fidel Castro.

More setbacks were to follow, but in 2003 Lula was elected president. He became one of the most popular politicians not only in Brazilian history but on the planet. His seven years in office saw millions of his compatriots lifted out of poverty. Disqualified from running for president in 2018, he was subsequently sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. That sentence was quashed in 2019, allowing Lula to defeat Jair Bolsonaro and win a third term.

Leading Brazilian journalist Fernando Morais has enjoyed direct, frank, and frequent access to his subject for decades. The result is a biography that paints a human portrait of grandeur and complexity.