Empire of Pain

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe delves into the gripping and highly controversial saga of the Sackler family, tracing their journey across three generations. Known for their ostentatious philanthropy and generosity towards prestigious cultural and educational institutions such as Harvard, Oxford, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Louvre, the Sacklers' immense wealth was long shrouded in mystery. This powerful narrative unfolds the hidden truth behind their fortune: the development and aggressive marketing of OxyContin, the painkiller that played a crucial role in igniting the devastating opioid crisis.

Keefe intricately weaves the story from the family's early days, highlighting the ambitions and entrepreneurial spirit of the patriarch, Arthur Sackler, whose innovative approaches to medical advertising paved the way for the family's immense success. As the narrative unfolds, we see how his successors continued to build on his legacy, all while steadily contributing to an epidemic that has claimed almost half a million lives worldwide. Keefe doesn’t just chronicle these events; he provides an in-depth examination of the systemic greed, moral negligence, and overwhelming callousness that fuelled this public health catastrophe.

This is more than just a family biography; it is a chilling exposé of the interplay between wealth, influence, and corporate malfeasance in contemporary society. Despite the grave subject matter, Keefe’s masterful storytelling renders Empire of Pain a compulsive page-turner, replete with engrossing twists and startling revelations that rival any modern thriller.

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

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

"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

"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