Synopsis
From the Baillie Gifford Prize-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing comes a riveting story of wealth, violence and deceit at the heart of a glittering city.
'Gripping, rigorous, smart . . . breathtaking' - Jon Ronson
'A phenomenal book that will stay in your soul long after the last page . . . it captures how easily a life can go wrong in the shadows of a city bankrolled by billionaires' - Emily Maitlis
'More addictive than any boxset, London Falling will break your heart, instill you with cold rage, and make you see London in a completely new light' - Sathnam Sanghera
In 2019, a London teenager, Zac Brettler, fell to his death from a luxury apartment building on the banks of the Thames. On a desperate quest to understand how their son had died, his grieving parents made a terrible discovery: Zac had been leading a fantasy life, posing as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch.
Patrick Radden Keefe follows Zac’s parents on a dark journey to find out what brought him to the balcony that night – and how a teenager’s life of make-believe drew him into the city’s terrifying underworld.
Details
07 April 2026
9781035056279Reviews
'Gripping, rigorous and smart, London Falling takes a terrible mystery with an extraordinary cast of characters and somehow manages to make it perfectly encapsulate the weirdness of how London has mutated these past decades . . . breathtaking'
Mesmerising. More addictive than any boxset, this book will break your heart, instill you with cold rage, and make you see London in a completely new light
Patrick Radden Keefe has done it again - a phenomenal book that will stay in your soul long after the last page. London Falling is a tale of money and fantasy, fear and deception - that leads a deeply loved teenager to his death. Haunting, harrowing, and rich with empathy - it captures how easily a life can go wrong in the shadows of a city bankrolled by billionaires. A grieving parent’s questions go unanswered; a vital clue is met with an official shrug. And the crimes of the capital are swallowed up beneath a gleaming corporate veneer. This is a chilling story - told with humanity, curiosity and quiet outrage. It’s one that simply will not let you go. Put the phone to airplane mode, turn on the out-of-office: I guarantee you won’t want to be disturbed
Monumentally good. Patrick Radden Keefe is the finest non-fiction writer we have: a born storyteller with a fluent mastery of structure who marshals exceptional reporting with unsentimental compassion. London Falling tells the story of a family tragedy and of a city in flux, while also tracing a lineage of generational trauma and the human capacity for reinvention. I will never look at my city in quite the same way again
