The Observer Book Club with Philippe Sands

Invited experts

James Harding

Editor-in-Chief

Philippe Sands KC

Professor of Law, UCL and Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard

Join us in the newsroom with Philippe Sands KC, international human rights lawyer and renowned author of East West Street and The Ratline, to discuss his latest book 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia. A unique blend of memoir, detective story, courtroom drama and travelogue, the story weaves together the chilling narratives of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and SS officer Walther Rauff. At the heart of this riveting tale lies 38 Londres Street in Santiago, a location that becomes the nexus of two dark chapters in history. In the Observer newsroom, Sands will take us on an investigative journey from the arrest of Pinochet in London in 1998 to the post-war life of Rauff in Patagonia, uncovering the sinister connections between the two men, a hidden double story of mass murder and a disturbing link between the atrocities of the 1940s and those of our own times. Together, we'll ask: Can the threads of history truly be disentangled? What does it mean to seek justice across decades and continents? And how do we confront the uncomfortable truths that link the past to the present?