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Every book Patrick Radden Keefe recommended on podcasts
Patrick Radden Keefe participates in The Book Review podcast as an accomplished author and avid reader with a deep appreciation for narrative nonfiction, mysteries, and literary fiction. During his discussions, Keefe shares a curated selection of books he frequently returns to or recommends to others. He highlights Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children as a novel he revisits every few years, alongside Truman Capote's classic true crime work In Cold Blood and Donna Tartt's acclaimed novel The Secret History. Keefe also praises Scott Turow's debut legal thriller Presumed Innocent, Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai, and Geoff Dyer's Out of Sheer Rage, a thoughtful gift he received from a former editor that he readily recommends to anyone. In addition to these enduring favorites, Keefe discusses exploring monumental works of literature and biography, mentioning his experience reading George Eliot's classic Middlemarch for the first time and tackling Robert A. Caro's massive biographical study The Power Broker cover to cover during his college years, reflecting an expansive appetite for deeply reported and finely crafted writing.
Books recommended by Patrick Radden Keefe
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In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a pioneering true-crime masterpiece that details the brutal 1959 murders of a Kansas family and the subsequent capture, trial, and execution of the killers.
Recommended“In Cold Blood is a book I go back to quite a bit.”
Where to get it
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Out of Sheer Rage
Out of Sheer Rage by Geoff Dyer is a biographical and critical study exploring the author's frustrating attempts to write a book about D.
Recommended“And when I was halfway through Eileen gave me out of sheer rage by Geoff Dyer. Which is a great book that I'd recommend to anybody”
Where to get it
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Presumed Innocent
Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow is widely regarded as a classic legal thriller that explores the intense fallout within a prosecutor's office after a prominent attorney is accused of murdering his colleague.
Recommended“I really love Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow's first novel. Wow. Incredible book.”
Where to get it
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The Emperor's Children
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud is a sharp social novel that chronicles the lives of three ambitious young cousins navigating career, romance, and intellectual pretension in pre-9/11 New York City.
Recommended“The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud which is a novel I read when it came out and I revisit every few years.”
Where to get it
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The Last Samurai
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt is a critically acclaimed and inventive novel that follows a single mother raising a precocious young boy in Tokyo as he becomes obsessed with Akira Kurosawa's film.
Recommended“The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. A really good reader.”
Where to get it
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The Secret History
The Secret History by Donna Tartt is a gripping psychological thriller that follows a tightly knit group of classics students at an elite Vermont college who become morally corrupted after committing murder.
Recommended“I love uh The Secret History by Donna Tartt. And And funnily my It's one of the best.”
Where to get it
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Middlemarch
Middlemarch by George Eliot is widely regarded as a masterwork of Victorian literature, brilliantly capturing the complex social fabric, political undercurrents, and psychological depths of provincial English life.
Discussed“It's Middlemarch, which I'd never read.”
Where to get it
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The Power Broker
The Power Broker by Robert A.
Discussed“I did read The Power Broker cover to cover when I was young when I actually was in college”
Where to get it
Books Patrick Radden Keefe wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patrick Radden Keefe on the Mystery at the Center of ‘London Falling’ | The Book Review | 2026-04-10 | 8 |