But the London-based barrister’s reach extends beyond legal circles; he is also an acclaimed nonfiction author. His best-known work, “East West Street,” published in 2016, is a deeply affecting account of his family’s experience during the Holocaust and the parallel tale of two of the founding fathers of international human rights law: Raphael Lemkin, the lawyer who coined the word “genocide,” and Hersch Lauterpacht, the lawyer who conceptualized the notion of crimes against humanity. The book, which has been translated into 30 languages, showed Sands to be a gifted historian and an even better storyteller, with a knack for suspenseful pacing (which he credits to the influence of John le Carré, who was a friend and neighbor).