London Falling
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 14 Apr 2026
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
'From the Baillie Gifford Prize-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing comes a stunning story of wealth, violence and deceit at the heart of a glittering city.
'A new book by Keefe means drop everything and close the blinds; you'll be turning pages for hours' Los Angeles Times
'Patrick Radden Keefe [is] one of the top narrative nonfiction authors of his generation' TIME
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.'
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A teenager’s mysterious death turns into a searing indictment of modern London’s darkest impulses in this gripping true crime story from award-winning New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe. In 2019, 19-year-old Zac Brettler fell from the balcony of a luxury Thames apartment. His grieving parents soon made a disturbing discovery: Zac had been living a secret life, posing as the heir to a Russian oligarch’s fortune. That dangerous fantasy pulled him into the orbit of shady businessmen and violent criminals, and when his parents began demanding answers, they found Scotland Yard increasingly unhelpful. Keefe’s meticulous reporting illuminates both the intimate tragedy of a family trying to understand who their son really was and the rot beneath London’s glittering billionaire culture. The slow-building revelation of just how far Zac’s deception had taken him hits like a gut punch. London Falling is an essential portrait of grief, ambition, and the dark side of wealth.
