Patrick Radden Keefe to Appear at The Music Hall Lounge with Bestselling Book EMPIRE OF PAIN in November

On Saturday, November 12, New York Times bestselling author Patrick Radden Keefe will come to The Music Hall Lounge to discuss his book, EMPIRE OF PAIN, a generations spanning-tale of the Sackler family and their role in the modern-day opioid crisis.

The 7pm event includes an author discussion moderated by Brittany Wason, The Music Hall's Literary Producer, followed by an audience Q&A. It will be held at The Music Hall Lounge at 131 Congress St., in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

"Patrick Radden Keefe's gift of storytelling can transform any subject into a page turner, and his new book is no exception," said Brittany Wason, Literary Producer and evening's moderator. "I'm looking forward to speaking with him about this in-depth investigation into the family that started it all."

ABOUT THE BOOK

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 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 twentieth-century Brooklyn to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. It follows the family's early success with Valium to the much more potent OxyContin, marketed with a ruthless technique of co-opting doctors, influencing the FDA, downplaying the drug's addictiveness.

A masterpiece of narrative reporting, Empire of Pain is a ferociously compelling portrait of America's second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super-elite, and a relentless investigation of the naked greed that built one of the world's great fortunes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Patrick Radden Keefe is a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of the New York Times bestseller Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, was selected as one of the ten best books of 2019 by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal, and was named one of the "10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade" by Entertainment Weekly. His work has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. He is also the creator and host of the eight-part podcast Wind of Change. He lives in New York.

TICKETS

The ticket package for Talks: Patrick Radden Keefe with EMPIRE OF PAIN, on Saturday, November 12, at 7pm is $35. The package includes a signed copy of EMPIRE OF PAIN ($18, paperback), beverage, reserved seat, author discussion, audience Q+A, and post-show meet-and-greet. Packages can be purchased online at TheMusicHall.org, over the phone at 603.436.2400, or in person at the B2W Box Office at the Historic Theater, 28 Chestnut Street.

About Talks

In this Age of Participation, The Music Hall has expanded its programming to focus on issues critical to our time. The Talks series, formerly named Innovation + Leadership, was first launched to serve our local business community, bringing together the best and the brightest in technology. The series has since broadened to showcase opinion leaders, authors and all variety of educators, and to serve audiences from a tri-state region and beyond-all who are interested in bettering the worlds they live in, at work and at home, locally and around the world. These lively and informative conversations feature experts in their field sharing experiences and providing participants practical tools for making meaningful advances in their lives. From demonstrations in the art of all things digital to special forums featuring regional and global leaders in sustainability, from book discussion-demonstrations on the positive effect of meditation to awareness-raising events led by today's champions in philanthropy, feminism, and family matters, each Talks event is memorable and impactful. The Music Hall is committed to community building and personal flourishing. Our Talks series delivers on that commitment.

About The Music Hall

The Music Hall is an active and vital cultural center in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire, dedicated to advancing the tri-state region's cultural life through the performing arts, literature, and education. A community-supported 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, it presents entertainment from around the world and around the corner-the greatest musicians, writers, and performers of the time, extraordinary films, and award-winning documentaries. Its 600 yearly events delight an annual audience of 130,000 (including 20,000 children) in two theaters-an 1878 Victorian-era Historic Theater and the intimate Music Hall Lounge. The Music Hall is a designated "American Treasure for the Arts." Through innovative community partnerships, it subsidizes thousands of tickets each year to make the arts accessible to all. The Music Hall is community-oriented and committed to helping the Seacoast region flourish.

Web: www.TheMusicHall.org | Twitter: @MusicHall | Facebook: /musichall | YouTube: /musichallnh