Patrick Radden Keefe for London Falling

'One of those authors I will always read, no matter what the subject matter . . . a masterclass in compelling narrative non-fiction' - The Guardian on Empire of Pain

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.

Patrick will be speaking to Kavita Puri at this event.

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.

Kavita Puri is a multi award-winning journalist, executive producer, broadcaster and author. She has held senior editorial positions on the BBC’s flagship current affairs programmes, covering foreign affairs, politics and investigations. She has created landmark podcasts on BBC Radio 4, including Three Million which won Best New Podcast at the British Podcast Awards, and was a Times and Guardian Podcast of the Year. She is the author of Partition Voices, adapted at the Donmar Warehouse. It was based on her Radio 4 series, which won the Royal Historical Society’s overall Public History Prize and Best Podcast series. She was the Chair of the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2025, and is a Trustee at the Victoria and Albert Museum.