London Falling
by
Patrick Radden Keefe
Last year I saw a story in the news about a teenage boy from London who died under strange circumstances in a fall off a luxury apartment balcony. Zac Brettler’s family learned that prior to his death in 2019, their nineteen-year-old son had been posing as the son of a Russian oligarch and was navigating a dangerous underworld. How did Zac wind up in such a bizarre and tragic situation? In 2024, an article written by Patrick Radden Keefe first appeared in The New Yorker. Prior its publication, Zac’s family had not gone public with their story, but after several years, they were still searching for answers. After The New Yorker article, Keefe wrote London Falling, published in April 2026.
After his death, Zac’s parents, Matthew and Rachelle, desperate to understand what happened, dove into an intense and agonizing investigation into their son’s secret life. They kept in close touch with Scotland Yard and shared what they found with the detective in charge of the case. Did Zac jump or was it an accident? Or was it murder?
In addition to the story about Zac, Keefe’s narrative provides a detailed look at the changes London underwent in the 1990s. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, there was an influx of foreign money and by the time Zac became a teenager, the next generation of Russians, the children of oligarchs, had populated the area, including Zach’s private boarding school. Zac, a clever and gregarious child who liked to joke and tell stories, grew into a teenager who was obsessed with money.
He started boasting about big real estate deals and his contact with power movers. And he got mixed up with two men, Akbar Shamji, a business man in his forties, and Verinder Sharma, who said he was a rubber tycoon, but was really a violent mobster.
You might ask how Zac’s parents missed these dangerous developments. The answer is complicated. They were loving parents and involved in their two sons’ lives. But they also believed in independence. At eighteen, Zac was a legal adult and, according to interviews with the Brettlers, they “gave their son enormous latitude to live his life.” This was despite their concerns about his obsession with money and bragging about deals. Teenagers go through phases and they hoped he would grow out of it.
The author also devotes a good portion of the book to the Brettler family. Both of Zac’s grandfathers were Holocaust survivors. Rachelle’s father arrived in London alone and became a well-known and highly-respected rabbi. And both their fathers, who came to London with nothing, were intent on building families. It was rough digging into Zac’s digital life, left behind on his phone and iPad. Rachelle wanted to get into Zac’s mind. What was he feeling on the day he went off the balcony. Matthew was more analytical and took solace in compiling details of the events leading up to Zac’s death. Both were searching for a way to reconfigure their family.
I was fascinated with the details of this story and was glad to discover another author of narrative fiction. I learned a lot about London, the history of the Thames, Akbar’s family and the huge and complicated businesses his father built after the family was evicted from Uganda by Idi Amin.
I recommend London Falling to readers who like history and true crime stories.
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Book Club Mom 
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