What We Are Reading Today: ‘Empire of Pain’ by Patrick Radden Keefe

“Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty” is a biography and genealogy book written by award-winning American author and investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe.
The book offers rich insights into 21st-century greed, through the story of three generations of one of the world’s wealthiest families — the Sacklers, founders of Purdue Pharma and Mundipharma.
Keefe explores the moral ambiguity of the Sackler’s rise to riches, focusing particularly on the family’s role in the marketing and selling of the highly addictive opiate Oxycodone, which many observers believe sparked the international opioid crisis that has taken the lives of more than 500,000 individuals.
“Empire of Pain” was published last year. It immediately reached The New York Times bestseller list and went on to win the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction as well as being nominated for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.