Zack, grand nephew of Shoah survivorrs seemed to be just another 19-year old troubled teenager, but as he disappears and found dead in the Thames, his middle class parents may discover in horror that their belovoed son was leading his very own secret life.
At first, Zack seemed to be a slightly more dangerous masculine version of Anna Delvey: he built up an identity as the son of a fictive Russian billionaire with connections as high as Roman Abramovic, mixing up with the London underworld.
In any of the details meticulously shared in the well-documented and well-written true crime story of his case by Patrick Radden Keefe - London Falling. A Mysterious Death in the Guilded City and a Family´s Search for Truth, there is no mention that Zack didn´t love his family, or was alienated in any possible way from them. Swallowed up by social media, trying to show off and build a satisfactory identity. An identity that everyone seemed to take it seriously, until something may have been revealed and put himself into danger in relationship with his entourage. There is a new world, with new expectations and trusting your child is not enough; one needs also to understand what the actual dangers and illusions luring ahead may be.
Patrick Radden Keefe is going so much into the deep details of the case, from social to family history, in a curious yet empathic way. As a mother of son, was often thinking of the deep drama his parents are going through. Lovely parents with a sense of justice who just wanted to understand what actually happened to their son, and maybe also why did he followed this path, or at what extent they were sharing a responsibilty.
This book - that I had access to in the audiobook version - is a complex investigation where parenting meets true crime, in a contemporary episode in a city with a century-old personal history of crime. A recommended read for understanding the world our children are living in.
Highly recommended.
Rating: 5 stars
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