Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction - Softcover

Keefe, Patrick Radden

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1529063078 ISBN 13: 9781529063073

Publisher: Picador, 2021

Synopsis

The inspiration behind the Netflix tv series Painkillers, starring Uzo Aduba and Matthew Broderick

Winner of the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2021
Goodreads Choice Awards 2021: Winner, Memoir & Autobiography

Empire of Pain is the story of a dynasty: a parable of 21st century greed

'One of those authors I will always read, no matter what the subject matter, which is why I gobbled up Empire of Pain . . . a masterclass in compelling narrative nonfiction.' – Elizabeth Day, The Guardian '30 Best Summer Reads'

'If you haven’t read it already, you really should. I’ve been thinking about it nonstop ever since I finished it.' – Malcolm Gladwell

The gripping and shocking story of three generations of the Sackler family and their roles in the stories of Valium, Oxycontin and the opioid crisis.

The Sackler family is one of the richest in the world, and their name adorns the walls of many famous institutions – Harvard; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Oxford; the Louvre. The source of the family fortune was vague, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing Oxycontin, a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis – an international epidemic of drug addiction which has killed nearly half a million people.

In this masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, award-winning journalist and host of the Wind of Change podcast Patrick Radden Keefe exhaustively documents the jaw-dropping and ferociously compelling reality.

Shortlisted for the 2021 Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

________________________

Praise for Empire of Pain:

'More compelling, more character driven, and more capacious than any novel I have read this year.' – Sara Collins

'It’s superbly written, exhaustively researched, full of fierce moral resolve, jaw-droppingly revealing, and above all propulsively readable. More than a match for any novel, and I think a future classic.' – Andrew Holgate, Literary Editor, The Sunday Times, chair of the Baillie Gifford judges, 2022

'Jaw-dropping . . . Beggars belief' – The Sunday Times

'You feel almost guilty for enjoying it so much' – The Times

'A page-turner with a villainous family to rival the Roys in Succession, and one where every chapter ends with the perfect bombshell' - Esquire

'This is unflinching reporting of a story that will grip and disturb you.' – Evening Standard

'A chilling and mesmerizing read, “substantially built on the family’s own words”. Which is what makes it so damning.' – The Observer

'He [Patrick Radden Keefe] adopts a calmly astonished tone as he tells a shocking story of callousness, cover-ups and monumental greed.' – The Guardian, Audiobook of the week

'Magnificent' – The Guardian
'Damning' – The Daily Mail
'A tour de force' – The Financial Times
'Superb' – The Spectator
'Excellent' – The Economist

About this title

About the Author

Patrick Radden Keefe is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search For Truth, the bestsellers Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction), Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks (a collection of his New Yorker stories), and Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (named one of the 20 Best Books of the 21st Century by the New York Times and now streaming as a limited series on Disney+), as well as two critically acclaimed books, The Snakehead and Chatter. He is the writer and host of the eight-part podcast Wind of Change, which The Guardian named the #1 podcast of 2020, and the recipient of the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. He lives in New York.

From the Back Cover

The highly-anticipated portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, by the prize-winning, bestselling author of Say Nothing.

The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions – Harvard; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Oxford; the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations in the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing Oxycontin, a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis-an international epidemic of drug addiction which has killed nearly half a million people.

In this masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, Patrick Radden Keefe exhaustively documents the jaw-dropping and ferociously compelling reality. Empire of Pain is the story of a dynasty: a parable of 21st century greed.

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1529063078
• ISBN 13: 9781529063073
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 560