Kershaw's writing is masterly, and the individual works making up the biography, _Hubris_ and _Nemesis_, each deserve five stars. My three-star rating is aimed specifically at this one-volume edition: neither the jacket copy nor Amazon's description makes it clear that this is an abridgement, omitting ~650 pages from the original volumes and dropping all the endnotes. If you want a lighter, cut-down version of Kershaw's biography, this edition is certainly serviceable. But if you want to read Kershaw's full text, rather than just the highlights, you'll be better off ordering the two volumes separately. (Which I intend to do after returning this edition.)