London Falling:A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth
Patrick Radden Keefe, the Baillie Gifford Prize-winning author behind Empire of Pain and Say Nothing, returns with a story that is, by turns, heartbreaking and deeply unsettling. In 2019, a London teenager named Zac Brettler fell to his death from a luxury apartment block overlooking the Thames. A tragedy, certainly. But the full picture proved far stranger and more troubling than anyone could have anticipated. As his devastated parents began searching for answers, they uncovered something extraordinary: their son had been living an elaborate fiction, presenting himself to the world as the child of a wealthy Russian oligarch. What follows is Keefe's meticulous reconstruction of the journey those parents took into the shadows of one of the world's most gilded cities. London, as portrayed here, is not just a backdrop. It's almost a character in itself, glittering on the surface while concealing whole worlds of danger beneath. Keefe brings his signature blend of rigorous research and compulsive storytelling to bear on a narrative that raises uncomfortable questions about identity, deception, and the seductive pull of wealth. Reviewers including Jon Ronson and Emily Maitlis have praised it in the highest terms, and it's easy to understand why. This is the kind of book that lodges somewhere behind your eyes and refuses to leave quietly.
- Author: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Publisher: Picador
- Genre: Economics
- ISBN: 978-1035056293
- Pages: 384 pages