The Story
THE INSTANTÂ SUNDAY TIMESÂ No.1 BESTSELLER
THE INSTANTÂ NEW YORK TIMESÂ No.1 BESTSELLER
'A defining book of our time' -Â The Times
'The master of the non-fiction narrative' -Â The Sunday Times
'A masterpiece' -Â The Observer
'Compulsive' -Â The Guardian
'Breathtaking' - Jon Ronson
'Completely engrossing' - Louis Theroux
'Phenomenal' - Emily Maitlis
'More addictive than any box set' - Sathnam Sanghera
From the Baillie Gifford Prize-winning and Sunday 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.
In 2019, a London teenager, Zac Brettler, fell to his death from a luxury
apartment building on the banks of the Thames. On a desperate quest to
understand how their son had died, his grieving parents made a terrible
discovery: Zac had been leading a fantasy life, posing as the son of a wealthy
Russian oligarch.
Patrick Radden Keefe follows Zacâs parents on a dark journey to find out what
brought him to the balcony that night â and how a teenagerâs life of
make-believe drew him into the cityâs terrifying underworld.
About the author
Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker and the bestselling author of five books, including Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, which received the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the FT Business Book of the Year, and Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award.
His most recent book is Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks. The recipient of the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, he is also the creator and host of the 8-part podcast "Wind of Change," about the strange intersection of Cold War espionage and heavy metal music, which was named the #1 podcast of 2020 by Entertainment Weekly and the Guardian and has been downloaded more than 10 million times.
He grew up in Boston and now lives in New York.
Description
THE INSTANTÂ SUNDAY TIMESÂ No.1 BESTSELLER
THE INSTANTÂ NEW YORK TIMESÂ No.1 BESTSELLER
'A defining book of our time' -Â The Times
'The master of the non-fiction narrative' -Â The Sunday Times
'A masterpiece' -Â The Observer
'Compulsive' -Â The Guardian
'Breathtaking' - Jon Ronson
'Completely engrossing' - Louis Theroux
'Phenomenal' - Emily Maitlis
'More addictive than any box set' - Sathnam Sanghera
From the Baillie Gifford Prize-winning and Sunday 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.
In 2019, a London teenager, Zac Brettler, fell to his death from a luxury
apartment building on the banks of the Thames. On a desperate quest to
understand how their son had died, his grieving parents made a terrible
discovery: Zac had been leading a fantasy life, posing as the son of a wealthy
Russian oligarch.
Patrick Radden Keefe follows Zacâs parents on a dark journey to find out what
brought him to the balcony that night â and how a teenagerâs life of
make-believe drew him into the cityâs terrifying underworld.
About the author
Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker and the bestselling author of five books, including Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, which received the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the FT Business Book of the Year, and Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award.
His most recent book is Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks. The recipient of the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, he is also the creator and host of the 8-part podcast "Wind of Change," about the strange intersection of Cold War espionage and heavy metal music, which was named the #1 podcast of 2020 by Entertainment Weekly and the Guardian and has been downloaded more than 10 million times.
He grew up in Boston and now lives in New York.
