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  • Published: 1 September 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099528128
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 608
  • RRP: $22.99

The Godfather

The classic bestseller that inspired the legendary film




The classic mafia tale - reissued to celebrate the 40th anniversary of first publication

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The classic novel that inspired 'the greatest crime film of all time'

Tyrant, blackmailer, racketeer, murderer - his influence reaches every level of American society. Meet Don Corleone, a friendly man, a just man, a reasonable man. The deadliest lord of the Cosa Nostra. The Godfather.

But no man can stay on top forever, not when he has enemies on both sides of the law. As the ageing Vito Corleone nears the end of a long life of crime, his sons must step up to manage the family business. Sonny Corleone is an old hand, while World War II veteran Michael Corleone is unused to the world of crime and reluctant to plunge into the business.

Both the police and ruthless rival crime lords scent blood in the water. If the Corleone family is to survive, it needs a ruthless new don. But the price of success in a violent life may be too high to bear...
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A modern masterpiece, The Godfather is a searing portrayal of the 1940s criminal underworld. Still shocking long after its initial publication, this compelling tale of blackmail, murder and family values is a true classic.

  • Published: 1 September 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099528128
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 608
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Mario Puzo

Mario Puzo was born in New York and, following military service in World War II, attended New York's New School for Social Research and Columbia University. His best-selling novel The Godfather was preceded by two critically acclaimed novels, The Dark Arena (1955) and The Fortunate Pilgrim (1965). In 1978 he published Fools Die, followed by The Sicilian (1984), The Fourth K (1991), and the second instalment in his Mafia trilogy, The Last Don (1996), which became an international bestseller. Mario Puzo also wrote many screenplays, including Earthquake, Superman, and all three Godfather films, for which he received two Academy Awards. He died in July 1999 at his home in Long Island, New York, at the age of seventy-eight.

Also by Mario Puzo

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Praise for The Godfather

A splendid and distinguished blood saga of the Cosa Nostra, the American Mafia, and of the whirl created by five families of mafiosi at war in New York

Sunday Times

The narrative bowls along... to keep readers turning pages all the way to an explosive showdown.

Daily Mail

Here is all the classic material of Mafia mythology... spins a spell all its own

The Times

Puzo's genius was to create a world so thick with personality and acknowledged rules of behaviour, along with its crime and violence, that reading his books becomes a seriously guilty pleasure

New York Post

The Godfather, one of the most entertaining and absorbing popular novels of the postwar period... Puzo's masterpiece

Robert McCrum, Observer

As for fiction, there can only be one choice - The Godfather.

The Times