38 Londres Street

Named a Best Book of 2025 So Far by The Economist

"Though nearly a decade in the making, this book could not arrive at a better time, because its subject is one of the most pressing themes of our era: impunity. Weaving together a globe-trotting legal thriller, a personal history, and a twin portrait of a pair of mass murderers—one a fugitive Nazi, the other a head of state—Sands has created an indelible and enthralling work of moral witness." —Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing

“A remarkable book that reveals as never before the history of the former dictator’s detention in London—a chronicle that soon branches out into a whirlwind of other stories and events. . . . It is the relentless pursuit of this hidden and repulsive past that gives 38 Londres Street its startling originality, turning it into a tour de force that extends its reach far beyond what we typically envisage from a book about human rights. . . . I wondered how [Sands] would pull this off. He brilliantly succeeds. . . . Such a masterful work is the result of ten years of research and scores of interviews in several countries. . . . A constant back-and-forth in time and space that weaves together different strands of the past, both personal and collective, with each inquiry buttressed by striking sketches of those involved and the threads skillfully fashioned into a tapestry so that each event and investigation relates to all the others. This achieves a degree of mesmerizing subtlety in 38 Londres Street, as he proves that ‘everything is connected.’ . . . Exceptional.” —Ariel Dorfman, New York Review of Books

“Marvelous and absorbing. . . . Sands is also a consummate storyteller, gently teasing out his heavy themes and the accompanying legal intricacies through the unforgettable details he unearths and the many people—Rauff’s family, former military conscripts, British legal insiders—who open up to him. . . . There is a measure of hope in this book, but Sands shows that even in the face of overwhelming evidence, justice is never a foregone conclusion, especially when it comes to holding the powerful to account.” —Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review

“Sands’s research into this mystery [of the link between Rauff and Pinochet] becomes by far the most emotionally powerful strand of 38 Londres Street, which is no criticism of the rest. . . . He draws little distinction between Rauff’s victims on one continent and those on another, under one regime and another—a reminder why the international community has a duty, in his eyes, to prosecute torture and genocide across borders. It’s also a reminder that . . . ‘It is a fine thing to investigate for a personal reason.’ All three of Sands’s books on immunity are a stirring testament to this truth.” —Lily Meyer, The Washington Post

“A chilling transnational history of twentieth-century atrocity. What emerges is a profoundly humane examination of the legal, political, and ideological networks that make impunity possible, and a study of the moral clarity needed to confront power when it shields itself behind a uniform, a border, or a flag. . . . What makes Sands’s account of this legal drama so compelling is the way he weaves it into both the story of democratic reconstruction in post-dictatorial South America and the broader trajectory of his long-running investigations into atrocity and impunity.” —Andre Pagliarini, The New Republic

"38 Londres Street is many books, but especially two: on the one hand, an absorbing thriller where the fates of the bloodthirsty Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the nazi war criminal Walter Rauff intertwine, as do the present and the past, fiction and reality, chance and necessity; on the other hand, a profound, lucid and indispensable reflection on justice and impunity in a world that aspires or should aspire to universal justice. This is not only the most ambitious book Philippe Sands has written, but also his best. An enthralling read." —Javier Cercas, author of The Imposter

"In 38 Londres Street Philippe Sands combines the tone of the thriller with an astute and dramatic account of a most complex and fascinating legal case. Since Sands was present in court, there is an urgency in the narrative and a sharp sense of what was at stake. The book also offers a vivid picture of the personalities involved, including Pinochet himself, his translator, the judges, the British government and the victims of Pinochet's crimes. In the background lies evil itself in the guise of a Nazi in exile, the sinister Walther Rauff. This is a brilliant and important book." —Colm Toibin, author of Long Island

"The pace of a thriller novel, meticulously recorded and filled with urgent moral and political questions, this is Philippe Sands at his very best." —Ian Rankin, author of Midnight and Blue

"An extraordinary achievement . . . I read with open mouth and thumping heart. Sands brilliantly traces the atrocious trail of blood that leads from the death camps of Nazi Germany to the torture rooms of Pinochet's Chile. 38 Londres Street takes its place as one of the most unforgettable and important records of the systematic pitiless cruelty of which tyrannies are capable." —Stephen Fry

"A true masterpiece. Utterly compelling, a staggering piece of research and beautifully written." —Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm

"Sands is phenomenal. The research alone leaves one dazed with admiration." —Antony Beevor, author of The Second World War

"An odyssey of both international and personal significance. . . . Sands builds suspense like the best of mystery writers. 38 Londres Street is a masterful and timely mix of history, journalism, and memoir." —Booklist (starred review)

“An extraordinary exposé of the collusion of Nazis with the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. . . . An international law scholar and practitioner points to the loopholes that allowed a tyrant to evade prosecution.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Gripping . . . Sands evocatively studies the two mass murderers, with their similarly arrogant and unrepentant personalities, as avatars of a fascism undefeated and still festering in the West. With the extradition efforts against both men ultimately failing, the result is a disturbing indictment of an international legal system hampered in its ability to punish crimes against humanity.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Reads like a detective novel, fast and compelling . . . The Pinochet case raised a controversial issue of enormous international significance.” —Jonathan Sumption, The Spectator

“[An] intriguing, beautifully observed and thoughtful book about immunity and impunity . . . Sands makes his legal arguments come alive.” —Roger Boyes, The Times (London)

“This remarkable, sweeping book completes Sands's trilogy about Nazi war crimes . . . Sands’s exhaustive research is as impressive as his storytelling.” —Paul Whitington, Sunday Independent

“Sands’s achievement is to excavate a deeper intimacy between the cases of Rauff and Pinochet . . . he follows each twist in the double narrative with an impressive combination of moral clarity and judicious detachment . . . But it is Sands’s expertise in international law, coupled with a natural storyteller's intuition for structure, that gives his latest book its understated power. His stories have all the more impact for their subtlety.” —Rafael Behr, The Guardian

“Sands is a storyteller and a scholar, capable of turning scraps into an enthralling collage . . . These questions of memory and impunity are forever timely.” —Henry Mance, Financial Times

“Well told . . . An account of how difficult it is to bring to book those guilty of the most appalling crimes.” —Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph

“The concluding part of Philippe Sands's extraordinary trilogy—part history, part moral investigation, part memoir—that documents the legal and personal battles to bring to account Nazi war criminals and their disciples . . . One of Sands’s strengths as a writer is that he resists the impulse to demonise . . . He achieves [a damning picture] with his understated doggedness.” —Andrew Anthony, The Observer