The President is a partly inspired by the vicious real-life backlash to Brett Murray’s painting, The Spear (which controversially depicted South Africa’s then-president, Jacob Zuma). However, in “this engrossing debut” Publishers Weekly says “the action doesn’t read like thinly disguised reporting. Instead, like the best political thrillers, it’s suspenseful, propulsive, and infuriating at once. Readers will be rapt.”