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London Falling

A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth
Brief Description
From the Baillie Gifford Prize-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing comes a stunning story of wealth, violence and deceit at the heart of a glittering city. 'A new book by Keefe means drop everything and close the blinds; you'll... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3300
Elsewhere:
$4000
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Alex's Pick

From the New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing comes a riveting story of wealth, violence and deceit at the heart of a glittering city

New Yorker staff writer and Baillie Gifford-winning author of EMPIRE OF PAIN Patrick Radden Keefe returns with a stunning story of corruption and tragedy in one of the world's great cities: London.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

From the Baillie Gifford Prize-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing comes a stunning story of wealth, violence and deceit at the heart of a glittering city.

'A new book by Keefe means drop everything and close the blinds; you'll be turning pages for hours' - Los Angeles Times

'Patrick Radden Keefe [is] one of the top narrative nonfiction authors of his generation' - TIME

In 2019, a London teenager, Zac Brettler, mysteriously fell to his death from a luxury apartment building on the banks of the Thames. When his grieving parents began their desperate quest to understand how their son had died, they made a terrible discovery: Zac had been leading a fantasy life, posing as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch.

In his inimitably gripping and forensic prose, Baillie Gifford Prize winner and New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe follows Zac's parents on a dark journey to find out what brought Zac to the balcony that night - and how a teenager's world of make-believe drew him into the city's terrifying underworld.

London Falling is at once a devastating family tragedy, a riveting story of greed, power and deception, and an indictment of the culture that has transformed London into a haven for the malignant forces that have come to influence us all.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781035056293

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 April 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Picador

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 384

About the Author

Patrick Radden Keefe is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of 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 previous 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.

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