Empire of Pain

The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

By: Patrick Radden Keefe

Narrated by: Patrick Radden Keefe

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 best-selling 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 35 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 20th-century Brooklyn to the seaside palaces of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cap d’Antibes to the corridors of power in Washington, DC. 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.

©2021 Patrick Radden Keefe (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of the Year • One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of the Year • TIME Magazine 100 Must Read Books of 2021 • One the Best Books of the Year: NPR, Slate, EW, Boston Globe, Goodreads, The Guardian, Town & Country, BuzzFeed, LitHub, Vulture, and more

Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and Finalist for the Baillie Gifford Winner of Winners Award

One of President Obama's Favorite Books of the Year

“An engrossing (and frequently enraging) tale of striving, secrecy and self-delusion….Keefe nimbly guides us through the thicket of family intrigues and betrayals… Even when detailing the most sordid episodes, Keefe’s narrative voice is calm and admirably restrained, allowing his prodigious reporting to speak for itself. His portrait of the family is all the more damning for its stark lucidity.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“I read everything he writes. Every time he writes a book, I read it. Every time he writes an article, I read it … he’s a national treasure.”—Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” and author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Blowout

“A true tragedy in multiple acts. It is the story of a family that lost its moorings and its morals… Written with novelistic family-dynasty and family-dynamic sweep, EMPIRE OF PAIN is a pharmaceutical FORSYTHE SAGA, a book that in its way is addictive, with a page-turning forward momentum.”—David M. Shribman, The Boston Globe

Wow! Now I understand the opioid epidemic!

Having come of age as Valium, then MS Contin, and Oxicontin became major approaches to dealing with anxiety and pain, and having heard physicians repeat the sales pitch they received from a drug sales rep, the information presented in this book was not only very interesting, but more important, very educational.
The author has been meticulous in researching the information that he presents. The book is well written, presenting the information in a historical context to explain how the Sackler family businesses managed to create and market the drugs that would destroy so many lives. I highly recommend this book.

An excellent listen

To find so many people in one family who care only about themselves leads me to believe that narcissism may be hereditary.

Thank you

Thank you to Patrick Radden Okeefe for all your years of research and wonderful writing.

Thoroughly researched, engrossing biography

Patrick Radden Keefe is an exceptional writer who illustrates the entire story of the Sackler family, from the late 1800s until present-day. There is enough emotion and emphasis in his writing to keep the attention of the layperson, and his reading of the book portrays his passion for the subject of the opioid epidemic. Upon finishing Empire of Pain, I am mystified by how the family hasn't been convicted of multiple crimes relating to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of citizens. Throughout this narrative, Keefe obviously has an opinion. But that opinion doesn't deter from his deliverance of the facts. An excellent example of superior journalism. Highly recommended.

Amazing important story!

You won’t be able to put this book down! Keefe does an amazing job of reporting, writing… But he’s a gifted actor as well.

When I suggested to my stepson, who is at Amazon, that he read this, he said, “He’s a friend… I already have the book. I have a bro crush on him, because he’s such a great guy, and
such a good writer. I want him to write something for us!”

I, on the other hand, hope Keefe has time to take on the Trumps. And expose another dirty Billionaire Dynasty… One that almost ended my democracy.

Fascinating as it is tragic

Like Say Nothing, this a tremendously readable and researched book. This is a book I wish every American would read, or at the very least, learn the story which everybody should know.

From Book Two on, I was telling everybody I know about this title and imploring them to read it as I am now to anybody reading this review to do the same.

You will not regret making this purchase, or the time you spend listening to it.

Opioids

Too long and repetitive. Bad drug. Shameful doctors greedy people horrible family. Paid off judges.

Intriguing

I didn't know much about this family, just tid bits from the news. This was a fascinating book. Made me sick from time to time because it's unfathomable to me that a person much less a family can be so greedy at the expense of human lives.

Must Read

This book is so good! It’s a different take on the Opioid crisis. I’ve read several book in this topic, one he referenced, Dreamland was great too! The Sackler’s have truly fascinated me because each generation feels like they are untouchable. They remind me a little of the Trump’s. But this book doesn’t necessarily look at the devastation that Oxy had on our community but more at how it happened. This is the second book I’ve read by Patrick and look forward to the next!

Corruption Personified

I was totally immersed in this book from start to finish. What a great read!!!