Awards

• Short-listed for Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year 2021 (UK)
• Winner of Baillie Gifford Prize 2021 (UK)

Overview

"The inspiration behind the Netflix TV series Painkillers, starring Uzo Aduba and Matthew Broderick. Amazon's Top 20 Best Books of the Year 'This is no dense medical tome, but a page-turner with a villainous family to rival the Roys in Succession, and one where every chapter ends with the perfect bombshell.' Esquire 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. WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2021 SHORTLISTED FOR THE FT & MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021 ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2021 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD 'WINNER OF WINNERS' AWARD PRAISE FOR EMPIRE OF PAIN 'In this mesmerizing history of the Sackler Family-the founders and masterminds behind OxyContin-Radden Keefe spins a shocking and edifying story of ambition, power, deception, and greed that reads like fiction.' Al Woodworth, Senior Editor at Amazon (Amazon's Top 20 Best Books of the Year) 'The story of the Sacklers and OxyContin is a parable of the modern era of philanthropy being deployed to burnish the reputations of financiers and entrepreneurs . . . [A] tour-de-force' - Financial Times 'There are so many ""they did what?"" moments in this book, when your jaw practically hits the page' - Sunday Times 'Put simply, this book will make your blood boil....a devastating portrait of a family consumed by greed and unwilling to take the slightest responsibility or show the least sympathy for what it wrought....a highly readable and disturbing narrative.' John Carreyrou, bestselling author of Bad Blood 'Empire of Pain reads like a real-life thriller, a page-turner, a deeply shocking dissection of avarice and calculated callousness... It is the measure of great and fearless investigative writing that it achieves retribution where the law could not....Exhaustively researched and written with grace and gravity, Empire of Pain unpeels a most terrible American scandal. You feel almost guilty for enjoying it so much.' - The Times (London) 'An engrossing and deeply reported book about the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue Pharma. Their company created Oxycontin, the opioid introduced in the mid-90s that sent a wave of addiction and death across the country. Unlike previous books on the epidemic, Empire of Pain is focused on the wildly rich, ambitious and cutthroat family that built its empire first on medical advertising and later on painkillers. In his hands, their story becomes a great American morality tale about unvarnished greed dressed in ostentatious philanthropy.' - The New York Times 'A brutal, multigenerational treatment of the Sackler family... Keefe deepens the narrative by tracing the family's ambitions and ruthless methods back to the founding patriarch, Arthur Sackler...His life might be a model for the American dream, if it hadn't arguably laid the foundations for a still-unfolding national tragedy.' - NPR"

Full Product Details

Author:   Patrick Radden Keefe
Publisher:   Pan Macmillan
Imprint:   Picador
Dimensions:   Width: 13.00cm , Height: 4.50cm , Length: 19.70cm
Weight:   0.391kg
ISBN:  

9781529063103

ISBN 10:   1529063108
Pages:   560
Publication Date:   03 March 2022
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

Reviews

New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of the Year - One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2021 - TIME Magazine 100 Must Read Books of 2021 - One the Best Books of the Year: NPR, Slate, EW, Boston Globe, Goodreads, The Guardian, Town & Country, BuzzFeed, LitHub, Vulture, and more - Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction - One of President Obama's Favorite Books of the Year I read everything he writes. Every time he writes a book, I read it. Every time he writes an article, I read it ... he's a national treasure. - Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show and author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Blowout An engrossing (and frequently enraging) tale of striving, secrecy and self-delusion....Keefe nimbly guides us through the thicket of family intrigues and betrayals... Even when detailing the most sordid episodes, Keefe's narrative voice is calm and admirably restrained, allowing his prodigious reporting to speak for itself. His portrait of the family is all the more damning for its stark lucidity. - Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times A true tragedy in multiple acts. It is the story of a family that lost its moorings and its morals... Written with novelistic family-dynasty and family-dynamic sweep, EMPIRE OF PAIN is a pharmaceutical FORSYTHE SAGA, a book that in its way is addictive, with a page-turning forward momentum. - David M. Shribman, The Boston Globe A brutal, multigenerational treatment of the Sackler family... Keefe deepens the narrative by tracing the family's ambitions and ruthless methods back to the founding patriarch, Arthur Sackler...His life might be a model for the American dream, if it hadn't arguably laid the foundations for a still-unfolding national tragedy. - Brian Mann, NPR.org The opioid epidemic has killed nearly half a million Americans over the past two decades. Many of their loved ones, along with public health advocates and experts, believe that one very rich, very famous family has never fully faced the consequences for its role in those deaths. EMPIRE OF PAIN, the explosive new book by journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, is an attempt to change that -- to hold the family accountable in a way that nobody has quite done before, by telling its story as the saga of a dynasty driven by arrogance, avarice and indifference to mass suffering.... Keefe marshals a large pile of evidence and deploys it with prosecutorial precision. Keefe is a gifted storyteller who excels at capturing personalities. - Jonathan Cohn, The Washington Post Empire of Pain reads like a real-life thriller, a page-turner, a deeply shocking dissection of avarice and calculated callousness... It is the measure of great and fearless investigative writing that it achieves retribution where the law could not....Exhaustively researched and written with grace and gravity, Empire of Pain unpeels a most terrible American scandal. You feel almost guilty for enjoying it so much. - The Times (London) Keefe has a way of making the inaccessible incredibly digestible, of morphing complex stories into page-turning thrillers, and he's done it again with Empire of Pain...A scathing -- but meticulously reported -- takedown of the extended family behind OxyContin, widely believed to be at the root cause of our nation's opioid crisis. It's equal parts juicy society gossip and historical record of how they built their dynasty and eventually pushed Oxy onto the market. - Seija Rankin, Entertainment Weekly An air-tight indictment of the family behind the opioid crisis....[an] impressive expose. - Harriet Ryan, The Los Angeles Times A damning portrait of the Sacklers, the billionaire clan behind the OxyContin epidemic. If you are someone who engages in this kind of sneaky conduct, the last person you want reporting on you is Keefe....[He] has a knack for crafting lucid, readable descriptions of the sort of arcane business arrangements the Sacklers favored. He is also indefatigable....The Sackler infighting described in Empire of Pain will surely prompt many comparisons to the HBO series Succession. - Laura Miller, Slate One of the Ten Best Books of 2021 - Laura Miller, Slate Put simply, this book will make your blood boil....a devastating portrait of a family consumed by greed and unwilling to take the slightest responsibility or show the least sympathy for what it wrought....a highly readable and disturbing narrative. - John Carreyrou, The New York Times Book Review (cover) A shocking saga... [a]tour-de-force account... [Keefe] brings to life the obsessive personalities and ferocious energy of some members...The Sacklers emerge as a shameless bunch, but Empire of Pain also poses troubling questions about the US healthcare system that permitted them to flourish. - John Gapper, The Financial Times Rigorously reported and brilliantly executed Empire of Pain hones in on the family whose company developed, unleashed, and pushed the drug on Americans, pulling in billions of dollars for themselves in the process....This is an important, necessary book. - Hillary Kelly, New York magazine Indefatigable investigative journalist Keefe crafts a page-turning corporate biography and jaw-dropping condemnation of the Sacklers' amoral disregard for anything save the acquisition of power, privilege, and influence. In Keefe's expert hands, the Sackler family saga becomes an enraging expose of what happens when utter devotion to the accumulation of wealth is paired with an unscrupulous disregard for human health. - Carol Haggas, Booklist An engrossing and deeply reported book about the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue Pharma. Their company created Oxycontin, the opioid introduced in the mid-90s that sent a wave of addiction and death across the country. Unlike previous books on the epidemic, Empire of Pain is focused on the wildly rich, ambitious and cutthroat family that built its empire first on medical advertising and later on painkillers. In his hands, their story becomes a great American morality tale about unvarnished greed dressed in ostentatious philanthropy. - Time Magazine, The Best Books of 2021 So Far

There are so many they did what? moments in this book, when your jaw practically hits the page * Sunday Times * This is no dense medical tome, but a page-turner with a villainous family to rival the Roys in Succession, and one where every chapter ends with the perfect bombshell. * Esquire * The story of the Sacklers and OxyContin is a parable of the modern era of philanthropy being deployed to burnish the reputations of financiers and entrepreneurs . . . [A] tour-de-force * Financial Times * Put simply, this book will make your blood boil . . . a devastating portrait of a family consumed by greed and unwilling to take the slightest responsibility or show the least sympathy for what it wrought . . . a highly readable and disturbing narrative. -- John Carreyrou, author of <i>Bad Blood</i> * New York Times Book Review * An engrossing (and frequently enraging) tale of striving, secrecy and self-delusion . . . Even when detailing the most sordid episodes, Keefe's narrative voice is calm and admirably restrained, allowing his prodigious reporting to speak for itself. His portrait of the family is all the more damning for its stark lucidity. -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times * A true tragedy in multiple acts. It is the story of a family that lost its moorings and its morals . . . Written with novelistic family-dynasty and family-dynamic sweep, Empire of Pain is a pharmaceutical Forsythe Saga, a book that in its way is addictive, with a page-turning forward momentum. -- David M. Shribman * Boston Globe * Explosive . . . Keefe marshals a large pile of evidence and deploys it with prosecutorial precision . . . Keefe is a gifted storyteller who excels at capturing personalities. * Washington Post * An air-tight indictment of the family behind the opioid crisis . . . [an] impressive expose -- Harriet Ryan * Los Angeles Times * A damning portrait of the Sacklers, the billionaire clan behind the OxyContin epidemic . . . [Keefe] has a knack for crafting lucid, readable descriptions of the sort of arcane business arrangements the Sacklers favored. -- Laura Miller * Slate * Keefe has a way of making the inaccessible incredibly digestible, of morphing complex stories into page-turning thrillers, and he's done it again with Empire of Pain . . . A scathing - but meticulously reported - takedown of the extended family behind OxyContin. It's equal parts juicy society gossip and historical record of how they built their dynasty and eventually pushed Oxy onto the market. -- Seija Rankin * Entertainment Weekly *

Author Information

Author Website:   https://www.patrickraddenkeefe.com/

Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction), Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, as well as two previous critically-acclaimed books, The Snakehead, and Chatter. He is the writer and host of the eight-part podcast Wind of Change on the origins of the Scorpions' power ballad. He is the recipient of the 2014 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting in 2015 and 2016, and also received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He grew up in Boston and now lives in New York.

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Author Website:   https://www.patrickraddenkeefe.com/

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