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: 1529063108 ISBN 13: 9781529063103

Publisher: Picador, 2022

Synopsis

**Patrick Radden Keefe's new book, London Falling, is on sale now**

The shocking story of three generations of the Sackler family and their roles in the stories of Valium, OxyContin and the opioid crisis. The inspiration behind the Netflix series Painkiller, starring Uzo Aduba and Matthew Broderick.

Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
The Sunday Times Bestseller
A BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week'
One of The Telegraph's 20 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time
Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of the Year
Shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction

'There are so many "they did what?" moments in this book, when your jaw practically hits the page' – Sunday Times

'A page-turner with a villainous family to rival the Roys in Succession' – Esquire

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

By the beginning of the twenty-first century the Sackler family had become one of the richest in America, their name adorning the walls of institutions like Harvard and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The source of the family fortune had long been vague, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and ruthlessly marketing OxyContin – a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis which, to date, has killed over half a million people.

In this searing investigation, Patrick Radden Keefe tells the story of the Sackler family’s extraordinary rise and reveals a shocking story of greed and corruption at the heart of modern America.

Merging gripping storytelling with fearless investigative journalism, Patrick Radden Keefe is undeniably one of the great nonfiction writers of our time.

'I gobbled up Empire of Pain . . . a masterclass in compelling narrative nonfiction.' – Elizabeth Day, The Guardian

'[Keefe is] a gifted storyteller who excels at capturing personalities' – The Washington Post

'This book will make your blood boil' – John Carreyrou, author of Bad Blood

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: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1529063108
• ISBN 13: 9781529063103
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 560