Empire of Pain

The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

By: Patrick Radden Keefe

Narrated by: Patrick Radden Keefe

Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

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

MUST READ... you need to know who the Sackler family is

Mr Keefe gives a very informative story with a clear insight to a family that most of us had never heard of. The Sackler family hid behind their pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma, making billions of dollars, knowing that people were becoming addicted to their OxyContin that they sold. The Sacklers’ did not have a care in the world that people were dying everyday because of their drug that caused the opioid crisis. The Sacklers’ just continued on living the high life at the expense of other families. Mr Keefe opens your eyes to the corruption that goes on with the pharmaceutical industry and how people with money are offered a different justice then the rest of us. A true tragedy that could have and should have been stopped years before.

Definitely a Must Read!

One of the best non fiction books I've read. The story of the 3 arrogant generations associated with the opioid crisis is eye opening.

About as fair a shake as they're gonna get

This book is incredibly well researched. Keefe is also an above average storyteller. If you have any interest in how the Oxycontin epidemic began, you need to read this.

It's sorta remarkable, the access he had to various sources. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how he compiled everything into just on book.

Regardless, this is probably one of the most important stories of the last fifty years that hardly any Americans know about. That fact alone justifies its value. Keefe does a good job narrating as well.

RIVETING!!!!!

This is one of the best books I've read/listened to in a long time. From the very beginning, I was hooked and basically binge-listened to it. I highly recommend it for the story and I feel that the author did an amazing job at the narration too. It's a must read that I'm telling everyone I know about.

Empire of Pain

Great book and so well documented. Enjoyed every minute Highly recommend this read as it is full of sound information 😍

Outstanding well researched and thorough. A 10 on a scale of 5

This is an outstanding book about the Sackler family and their rise and fall. Keefe is a masterful writer, telling a factual story while also placing it in a powerful narrative. He
Is research is astonishing, and his final gift to the nation will be that this timeline will make it easier to evaluate all of the information which will come out about this astonishingly venal family.

Must read.

Cutting no corners and pulling no punches Keefe weaves an honest tale of greed and money.

Unfortunately an integral part of advertising & pharmaceuticals

Don’t let my 3 star performance sway you from this unbelievable 4 generation history of family dynasty. There’s soap opera worthy details of selfish family values & ambitious greed. Every American should read this purely to have a better understanding of what they’re putting in there bodies & why OUTSIDE sources matter (NOT the FDA, ADVERTISING (doctors), even TEXT BOOKS! Always look & see who is producing, donating, supporting, & where did employees previously work!

Extremely well researched and presented

This was an infuriating read of obscenely rich people doing terrible things and buying their way out with high priced lawyers, but despite that it was fascinating. The author was thorough and thoughtful, and I enjoyed it as much as I could for how angry I was.

You don't know what you don't know

I of course knew about opioids and opioid addiction and the crisis in this country, particularly the Appalachian regions, but I never had any idea of the makers, the history, or the aggressive sales tactics. I am glad I picked this up. Great narration!