The Snakehead

An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream

By: Patrick Radden Keefe

Narrated by: Feodor Chin

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.

Critic reviews

Advance Praise for THE SNAKEHEAD

Additional Quotes TK (by 4.20)

“THE SNAKEHEAD achieves what only the finest reporting can: it peels back an astonishing hidden world. Keefe takes the reader on a spellbinding journey from peasant farms in Asia to the treacherous high seas to the violent streets of Chinatown-a journey that will forever change your understanding of what it means to become an American.” – David Grann, the author of THE LOST CITY OF Z


“In Keefe's steady hand, the history of immigration to America is brought to life with the story of Chinese sojourners who arrive in a strange new land. You will pick it up for the drama it promises, but you will read it for the warmth and humanity it delivers.” –Sudhir Venkatesh, author of GANG LEADER FOR A DAY

Terrific

Keefe is a gifted writer who makes non-fiction sound like a novel. I never miss reading one of his works. Don’t miss this one.

Awesome

Again another great true story written by Patrick Radden K . Interesting story about immigration . Worth the listening

A sliver of history

Incredible to learn so much about an instance in time and a trade that affects our world today. With so much of the current events revolving around immigration, so little of it is illuminated and contextualized in way the author does.

Deep Dive on Immigration

Such a difficult topic for citizens to understand! An excellent read that will open your eyes to both the history and hopefully an understanding of how deep the solutions to illegal immigration and human smuggling run. Without some understanding, we cannot begin to address the problems we face.

Little Old Ladies Are Criminals Too

Would you consider the audio edition of The Snakehead to be better than the print version?

I vaguely remember the news about the leading incident in the book, wherein a ship wrecks and discharges its payload of would-be immigrants on a riverbank in NYC, as close to its destination as possible. The story about the search for the ultimate head of the business, who turns out to be a Chinese grandmother businesswoman who sees herself as helping her neighbors (at $30,000 a pop) is enlightening, particularly now when most of the news stories are about immigrants smuggled over the US-Mexican border. Not only Mexicans are being smuggled via that route, and it's been said Kazakh nuclear weapons could be brought in. Just yesterday, in Russia, an Iranian was caught trying to smuggle nuclear material out of the country by airplane--he was released, but his material stayed in the country. For how long? The US government hires minimum wage flunkeys to

What other book might you compare The Snakehead to and why?

I've never seen any similar book.