Empire of Pain : The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

　　薩克勒家族曾名列全球富豪榜前19強，他們因普渡製藥的精神科用藥煩寧（Valium）而大發利市，最後卻因令人成癮的止痛藥奧施康定（OxyContin）名譽掃地。

　　一度以慈善事業聞名全球的薩克勒家族，贊助標的橫跨藝術跟學術領域機構。舉凡哈佛大學、大都會藝術博物館、牛津大學、麻省理工學院、羅浮宮等知名建築與機構，都曾因接受他們的餽贈，館所以他們姓氏為名。

　　本書由屢獲殊榮的暢銷冠軍書《Say Nothing》作者追溯這個大家族一路從名利至高點，重重跌進世人唾棄深淵的歷程。

　　開頭篇章以醫生三兄弟雷蒙德（Raymond）、莫提默（Mortimer），以及亞瑟（Arthur）經歷美國經濟大蕭條，以及反猶太主義的社會場景揭開序幕。當時任職於精神病院、有行銷藥品天分的亞瑟發現了一種創新的藥物療法「煩寧」，他在併購了一家小型廣告公司後，大舉宣傳煩寧，為薩克勒家族賺進第一筆巨額財富。

　　亞瑟接著購買了藥品製造商普渡製藥（Purdue Pharma），並將經營權交由雷蒙德和莫提默。 三兄弟開始用他們的龐大收入在世界各地蒐羅藝術品及豪宅，他們的子嗣也享盡榮華富貴，帝國勢力牢不可破。

　　四十年後，雷蒙德的兒子理查（Richard）接管了家族企業。並複製「煩寧」行銷路數──好比拉攏醫師、影響美國食品藥品監督管理局，並避談藥物成癮姓──在市面上推出功能更強大的「奧施康定」，攢進約三百五十億美元的收入，然而後續引發了一場公共健康危機，造成數以萬計人民死亡。

　　本書敘述薩克勒家族跨越三代人的長篇故事，以及他們在世界上留下的印記。故事場景在二十世紀初美國布魯克林繁華街道、英國格林威治海邊皇宮、美國康乃狄格州、法國海岸昂蒂布角、華府權力核心間轉換，從多重軸線爬梳薩克勒建立帝國的始末，諸如薩克勒家族卸責的法律策略、浮誇的生活型態、激烈的遺產爭奪戰、董事會上的交鋒、耀眼的藝術品收藏、法庭上的沙盤推演、以及他們有策略地用財富提高聲譽並壓倒弱者的經歷。

　　本書融合敘事報導和辛辣文字，描繪美國「少數人掌握多數財富」的第二次鍍金時代，呈現金字塔尖端有罪不罰現象，並深入探討薩克勒家族如何踏著貪婪，以及對人類苦難的冷漠，累積大筆財富。(文/博客來編譯)

　　The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutionsHarvard, 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 begins with the story of three doctor brothers, Raymond, Mortimer and the incalculably energetic Arthur, who weathered the poverty of the Great Depression and appalling anti-Semitism. Working at a barbaric mental institution, Arthur saw a better way and conducted groundbreaking research into drug treatments. He also had a genius for marketing, especially for pharmaceuticals, and bought a small ad firm.

　　Arthur devised the marketing for Valium, and built the first great Sackler fortune. He purchased a drug manufacturer, Purdue Frederick, which would be run by Raymond and Mortimer. The brothers began collecting art, and wives, and grand residences in exotic locales. Their children and grandchildren grew up in luxury.

　　Forty years later, Raymonds son Richard ran the family-owned Purdue. The template Arthur Sackler created to sell Valiumco-opting doctors, influencing the FDA, downplaying the drugs addictivenesswas employed to launch a far more potent product: OxyContin. The drug went on to generate some thirty-five billion dollars in revenue, and to launch a public health crisis in which hundreds of thousands would die.

　　This 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 seaside palaces of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cap dAntibes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. Empire of Pain chronicles the multiple investigations of the Sacklers and their company, and the scorched-earth legal tactics that the family has used to evade accountability. The history of the Sackler dynasty is rife with dramabaroque 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.

　　Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling. It is a portrait of the excesses of Americas second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed and indifference to human suffering that built one of the worlds great fortunes.