Empire of Pain

  • Format:

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 inspiration behind the Netflix series Painkiller, starring Uzo Aduba and Matthew Broderick. THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Winner of the 221 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction A BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' Shortlisted for the 221 Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 221 Shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 'I gobbled up Empire of Pain . . . a masterclass in compelling narrative nonfiction.': Elizabeth Day, The Guardian '3 Best Summer Reads' 'You feel almost guilty for enjoying it so much': The Times 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, award-winning journalist and host of the Wind of Change podcast Patrick Radden Keefe exhaustively documents the jaw-dropping and ferociously compelling reality. Empire of Pain is the story of a dynasty: a parable of twenty-first-century greed. 'There are so many "they did what?" moments in this book, when your jaw practically hits the page': Sunday Times

Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of the international bestsellers Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction), Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (winner of the Orwell Prize), and Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels, and Crooks. He is also the writer and host of the eight-part podcast Wind of Change, about the strange convergence of Cold War espionage and heavy metal music, which The Guardian named the #1 podcast of 22. He grew up in Boston and now lives in New York.

Patrick Radden Keefe

Customer questions & answers

Add a review

Login to write a review.

Related products

Subscribe to Padhega India Newsletter!

Step into a world of stories, offers, and exclusive book buzz- right in your inbox! ✨

Subscribe to our newsletter today and never miss out on the magic of books, special deals, and insider updates. Let’s keep your reading journey inspired! 🌟