<p><b>The inspiration behind the Netflix tv series <i>Painkillers</i>, starring Uzo Aduba and Matthew Broderick<br><br>Winner of the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction</b><br><b>One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2021</b><br><b>Goodreads Choice Awards 2021: Winner, Memoir & Autobiography</b><br><br><b><i>Empire of Pain</i> is the story of a dynasty: a parable of 21st century greed</b><br><br>One of those authors I will always read, no matter what the subject matter, which is why I gobbled up <i>Empire of Pain . . .</i> a masterclass in compelling narrative nonfiction. – Elizabeth Day, <i>The </i><i>Guardian </i>30 Best Summer Reads<br><br>If you haven’t read it already, you really should.
I’ve been thinking about it nonstop ever since I finished it. – Malcolm Gladwell<br><br><b>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.</b><br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br><b>Shortlisted for the 2021 Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award</b><br><br>________________________<br><br>Praise for <i>Empire of Pain</i>:<br><br><b>More compelling, more character driven, and more capacious than any novel I have read this year. – Sara Collins</b><br><br><b>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, <i>The </i><i>Sunday Times</i>, chair of the Baillie Gifford judges, 2022 </b><br><br><b>Jaw-dropping . . . Beggars belief – <i>The</i> <i>Sunday Times</i><br><br>You feel almost guilty for enjoying it so much – <i>The Times</i><br><br>A page-turner with a villainous family to rival the Roys in Succession, and one where every chapter ends with the perfect bombshell - <i>Esquire</i><br><br>This is unflinching reporting of a story that will grip and disturb you. – <i>Evening Standard</i><br><br>A chilling and mesmerizing read, “substantially built on the family’s own words”.
Which is what makes it so damning. – <i>The</i> <i>Observer</i><br><br>He [Patrick Radden Keefe] adopts a calmly astonished tone as he tells a shocking story of callousness, cover-ups and monumental greed. – <i>The</i> <i>Guardian, </i>Audiobook of the week<br><br>Magnificent – <i>The </i><i>Guardian</i><br>Damning – <i>The </i><i>Daily Mail</i><br>A tour de force – <i>The </i><i>Financial Times</i><br>Superb – <i>The </i><i>Spectator</i><br>Excellent – <i>The </i><i>Economist</i></b></p>
