**THE INSTANT *SUNDAY TIMES* No.1 BESTSELLER
THE INSTANT *NEW YORK TIMES* No.1 BESTSELLER**

‘A defining book of our time’ – The Times

‘The master of the non-fiction narrative’ – The Sunday Times

‘A masterpiece’ – The Observer

‘Compulsive’ – The Guardian

‘Breathtaking’ – Jon Ronson

‘Completely engrossing’ – Louis Theroux

‘Phenomenal’ – Emily Maitlis

**’More addictive than any box set’ – Sathnam Sanghera**

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.

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.