Liz VanDerwerken's Reviews > Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

This book is meticulously researched and incredibly rendered. Patrick Radden Keefe's reporting is top-notch and the information he uncovers in this book is truly astonishing in its sheer volume and the way he has contextualized it in this saga of the Sacklers. I loved reading his afterword about his research and the sources as it gave insight into the years-long process of writing this book.

It's a truly impressive work and very engaging as the story moves through several generations of the Sackler family and their morally bankrupt business ethics, and how their medical innovations and shady marketing tactics were/are in large part to blame for the scale of the modern opioid epidemic. I really think this book deserves a Pulitzer for non-fiction as Radden Keefe's courageous reporting synthesized information and details that were not previously uncovered and juxtaposed. The deeds of the Sackler farmily are truly unconscionable and I definitely plan to read some of the other works about the opioid epidemic to gain a broader understanding of how their story fits into the bigger picture, both in the US and outside of it.