Do not recommend. A quick disclaimer – this is review of the book, not the man – LKY’s achievement in bringing Singapore to where it is today is impressive and should be celebrated. Unfortunately, his book is not.

The book has three modes: recounting events, commentary on them, and broader passages on values and how the world should be. The first (recounting events) is mostly shallow but has good parts, especially on interactions with foreign leaders. The second (commentary on events) is grating to read – LKY does a lot of ‘humble bragging’ that gets tiring. The third is fine, but watching his speeches is a more compelling way of receiving these.

The bigger issue is that the Singapore story told in the book feels very polished and idealised – only good decisions and sympathetic mistakes. It is a puff piece, and feels like there’s a more real, deeper untold story hiding under the surface. I read this book wanting to understand what actually happened, not get the version LKY wanted the public to hear.

There are useful bits. The threat of extinction as the factor that made hard decisions palatable to the public. Giving management shares of newspapers to Singaporean banks, because they’d have the financial incentives to keep the country stable long-term. And the discussions with other heads of state – sometimes bland, definitely not quite true, but unique.

I gave it an extra star mostly for the history. I hadn’t read anything covering Southeast Asia during this period, and it was genuinely interesting to learn about the surrounding countries and their relation to Singapore. But I suspect a dedicated history book would do a far better job. Would not recommend – there are better books to spend your time on.