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NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE NOMINEE • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR •NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. From the prize-winning and bestselling author of Say Nothing The history of the Sackler dynasty is rife with drama—baroque personal lives; bitter disputes over estates; fistfights in boardrooms; glittering art collections; Machiavellian courtroom maneuvers; and the calculated use of money to burnish reputations and crush the less powerful. The Sackler name has adorned the walls of many storied institutions—Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for the opioid crisis. Empire of Pain begins with the story of three doctor brothers, Raymond, Mortimer and the incalculably energetic Arthur, who weathered the poverty of the Great Depression and appalling anti-Semitism. Working at a barbaric mental institution, Arthur saw a better way and conducted groundbreaking research into drug treatments. He also had a genius for marketing, especially for pharmaceuticals, and bought a small ad firm.Arthur devised the marketing for Valium, and built the first great Sackler fortune. He purchased a drug manufacturer, Purdue Frederick, which would be run by Raymond and Mortimer. The brothers began collecting art, and wives, and grand residences in exotic locales. Their children and grandchildren grew up in luxury.Forty years later, Raymond’s son Richard ran the family-owned Purdue. The template Arthur Sackler created to sell Valium—co-opting doctors, influencing the FDA, downplaying the drug’s addictiveness—was employed to launch a far more potent product: OxyContin. The drug went on to generate some thirty-five billion dollars in revenue, and to launch a public health crisis in which hundreds of thousands would die. This is the saga of three generations of a single family and the mark they would leave on the world, a tale that moves from the bustling streets of early twentieth-century Brooklyn to the seaside palaces of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cap d’Antibes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C.  Empire of Pain chronicles the multiple investigations of the Sacklers and their company, and the scorched-earth legal tactics that the family has used to evade accountability. Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling. It is a portrait of the excesses of America’s second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed and indifference to human suffering that built one of the world’s great fortunes.

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty is a 2021 nonfiction book by Patrick Radden Keefe, about the Sackler family, the founders of Purdue Pharma, the maker of the prescription opioid OxyContin. The book was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

Keefe's book chronicles the rise and fall of the Sackler family, from their early days as successful pharmaceutical manufacturers to their downfall as a result of the opioid crisis. The book is based on extensive research, including interviews with former Purdue Pharma employees, members of the Sackler family, and government officials. In 2021, Empire of Pain won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

The book begins by detailing the early history of the Sackler family, including the rise of their pharmaceutical company, Purdue Pharma. Keefe then delves into the development of OxyContin, a powerful opioid painkiller that was aggressively marketed by Purdue Pharma. The book goes on to describe the devastating consequences of the opioid crisis, including the addiction and overdose deaths of millions of Americans.

Keefe also exposes the Sackler family's role in the opioid crisis, including their aggressive marketing tactics and their attempts to cover up the dangers of OxyContin. The book concludes with the Sackler family's fall from grace, as they faced lawsuits and criminal charges related to their role in the opioid crisis.

Empire of Pain is a powerful and disturbing book that tells the story of one of the most devastating public health crises in American history. The book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the opioid crisis and its impact on American society.