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Patrick Radden Keefe on 'London Falling' and the mystery of Zac Brettler
Posted
April 13, 2026
Views
761
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10
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April 13, 2026
761
10
1.31%
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11:17Now PlayingIn November of 2019, a young man leaped into the Thames River from a London apartment building and died. After 19-year-old Zac Brettler’s death, his parents learned their son had adopted a false identity as the son of a Russian oligarch. The mystery surrounding Brettler’s identity is the subject of Patrick Radden Keefe’s new book London Falling. In today’s episode, the author joins NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation about Brettler’s life in London among a crowd that worshipped wealth, the teen’s talent for accents, voices, and stories, and how Brettler got mixed up in a mutual con with an older businessman named Akbar Shamji.
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