Writers Bloc Presents Patrick Radden Keefe and Ava Kofman

In late 2019, a young man jumped to his death in London. Did 19-year-old Zac Brettler leap into the Thames from a balcony of a luxury apartment building on his own, or was it something else, something criminal? And if he did jump, did he intend to kill himself, or did he intend to run from something terrifying? And where was Scotland Yard's investigation?

No one writes on crime and its rippling orbit quite like bestselling and award winning author Patrick Radden Keefe. In Patrick Radden Keefe's new book, London Falling, we discover that the young man, from an affluent Jewish family in North London, had invented a secret life, an alternative identity for himself: that of the son of a Russian oligarch, heir to an enormous fortune. An heir to a Russian oligarch can certainly catch the eye of corrupt and dangerous criminal elements. London Falling is a most harrowing search for the facts around the young man's life and sudden death, and takes us into the dangerous terrain of London's criminal and often extremely wealthy underbelly. And throughout this story, we feel stonewalled and hamstrung by Scotland Yard. If you subscribe to The New Yorker, you might have read the story on which London Falling is based.

Author of several books that have taken readers and critics by storm, Radden Keefe's bestsellers include Say Nothing and The Empire of Pain to name just two.

In conversation with Ava Kofman, who is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Before joining The New Yorker, she was an investigative reporter at ProPublica, and has won distinguished prizes, including the National Press Club Award and the Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism.

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Patrick Radden Keefe photo credit: Justyna Gudzowska

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