In 1942, at the centre point of World War II, an extraordinary event took place not on the battlefield but in a municipal stadium in Kiev. This is the true story of courage, team loyalty and fortitude in the face of the most brutal oppression the world had ever seen. When Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, he caught the Soviet Union completely by surprise. At breathtaking speed his armies swept East, slaughtering the ill-prepared Soviet forces. His greatest military gains of the entire war were made in a few short months, and the largest single country that he conquered was the Ukraine, roughly the size of France. Ukraine's capital, Kiev, was circled, assaulted and overrun, and among the city's defenders who were captured and incarcerated were many of the members of the sparkling 1939 Dynamo Kiev football team, argaubly the best in Europe before the war. Captured Kiev was a starving city whose population were deported in vast numbers as slave labour. However one man was determined to save not just the surviving players from the Dynamo side but other athletes as well. He offered them work, shelter and, most valuably, bread, as workers in his bakery.

From Mean Streets to Casino, Robert De Niro has dominated Hollywood for nearly a quarter of a century. Dynamic and electrifying, his performances have been consistently memorable, and the films he has made with director Martin Scorsese (including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas) make a roll-call of some of the greatest cinema of our times. Despite his fame and success, De Niro's private existence is little known and has seldom been explored. Now, for the first time, here is the full story of this astonishing actor's life. Drawing on first-hand interviews with some of his closest friends and colleagues, this is a revealing and sometimes startling account of an intensely private man. While previous biographers of De Niro have only scraped the surface of his complex character, Andy Dougan's sensitive and perceptive portrayal lays bare the psychological and emotional scars which this consummate Method actor has sought to hide for so long. Compelling and full of insight, Untouchable: A Biography of Robert De Niro is the definitive account of a great actor's career, and a fascinating view of his complex inner world.