London Falling
A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Pan Macmillan
Publishing:7th Apr '26
£22.00
This title is due to be published on 7th April, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback - Signed Edition£22.00(9781035056279-S)
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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.
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.
In 2019, teenager Zac Brettler mysteriously fell to his death from a luxury apartment balcony into the Thames. As his grieving parents began to investigate his final days, they were shocked to learn that he’d been leading a double life, in which he was posing as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. This unsolved case is at the heart of London Falling – at once a family tragedy, a psychological portrait of a young fabulist, and an indictment of the greed for extreme wealth that has transformed one of the world’s great cities: London. Hiding in the shadows of its great architecture and imperial history are the malignant, mercenary forces that have come to influence us all – whether we realise it or not. In his inimitably gripping and forensic style, Baillie Gifford winner and New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe explores what brought Zac Brettler (the grandson of famous rabbi Hugo Gryn) to the balcony that night – and how he became involved with some of London’s most notorious gangsters. Following Zac’s parents on a dark journey of investigation, London Falling unearths the unsettling truths they discovere – both about the sinister underworld on their doorstep, and about their son’s secret world.
Mesmerising. More addictive than any boxset, this book will break your heart, instill you with cold rage, and make you see London in a completely new light -- Sathnam Sanghera
Patrick Radden Keefe has done it again - a phenomenal book that will stay in your soul long after the last page. London Falling is a tale of money and fantasy, fear and deception - that leads a deeply loved teenager to his death. Haunting, harrowing, and rich with empathy - it captures how easily a life can go wrong in the shadows of a city bankrolled by billionaires. A grieving parent’s questions go unanswered; a vital clue is met with an official shrug. And the crimes of the capital are swallowed up beneath a gleaming corporate veneer. This is a chilling story - told with humanity, curiosity and quiet outrage. It’s one that simply will not let you go. Put the phone to airplane mode, turn on the out-of-office: I guarantee you won’t want to be disturbed -- Emily Maitlis
Monumentally good. Patrick Radden Keefe is the finest non-fiction writer we have: a born storyteller with a fluent mastery of structure who marshals exceptional reporting with unsentimental compassion.London Falling tells the story of a family tragedy and of a city in flux, while also tracing a lineage of generational trauma and the human capacity for reinvention. I will never look at my city in quite the same way again -- Elizabeth Day
Troubling, humane and gripping, a journey across London’s dark heart and the murky death of a young man – part thriller, part psychological journey, part modern morality tale, Keefe is a literary non-fiction great and he’s done it again -- Philippe Sands
A gripping, heartbreaking and unsettling book about my city - a city, it turns out, I don’t know at all. Patrick Radden Keefe’s X-ray vision exposes the hidden networks, the dirty money, and our depressing surrender to malevolent billionaires. London Falling is important and brilliant -- Nick Hornby
ISBN: 9781035056279
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
384 pages