The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream

The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream - Paperback

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The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream
  • The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream
The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream - Paperback

The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream - Paperback

by Patrick Radden Keefe
$19.00
$19.00

Book Overview

by Patrick Radden Keefe (Author)

In this thrilling panorama of real-life events, the bestselling author of Empire of Pain investigates a secret world run by a surprising criminal: a charismatic middle-aged grandmother, who from a tiny noodle shop in New York's Chinatown managed a multi-million dollar business smuggling people.

"Reads like a mashup of The Godfather and Chinatown, complete with gun battles, a ruthless kingpin and a mountain of cash. Except that it's all true." --Time

Keefe reveals the inner workings of Sister Ping's complex empire and recounts the decade-long FBI investigation that eventually brought her down. He follows an often incompetent and sometimes corrupt INS as it pursues desperate immigrants risking everything to come to America, and along the way, he paints a stunning portrait of a generation of illegal immigrants and the intricate underground economy that sustains and exploits them. Grand in scope yet propulsive in narrative force, The Snakehead is both a kaleidoscopic crime story and a brilliant exploration of the ironies of immigration in America.

Author Biography

Patrick Radden Keefe is a fellow at The Century Foundation and the author of Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping. A graduate of Columbia University and Yale Law School, and the recipient of a Marshall Scholarship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, he is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Slate, and many other publications. The Snakehead was a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Prize, awarded by the Journalism School at Columbia University for excellence in American nonfiction writing.

For character dossiers, an image gallery, interactive maps, and more, please visit: www.thesnakehead.com.
Number of Pages: 432
Dimensions: 0.98 x 8.12 x 5.24 IN
Publication Date: July 27, 2010
ISBN9780307279279
Author Patrick Radden Keefe
PublisherVintage
GenreBiography and Education
FormatPaperback
PublishedJuly 2010
LanguageENG- English
Pages432
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Biography & Autobiography Nonfiction Social Science True Crime

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About Patrick Radden Keefe

PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE is a staff writer at The New Yorker, an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of The Snakehead and Chatter. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Slate, New York, and The New York Review of Books, among others and he is a frequent commentator on NPR, the BBC, and MSNBC. Patrick received the 2014 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, for his story "A Loaded Gun," was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting in 2015 and 2016, and is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

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