The Family - Softcover

Puzo, Mario

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062089153 ISBN 13: 9780062089151

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2011

Synopsis

"We are a family. And the loyalty of the family must come before everything and everyone else. For if we honor that commitment, we will never be vanquished—but if we falter in that loyalty, we will all be condemned."

The crowning achievement of a truly phenomenal career, Mario Puzo's final novel is a remarkable epic of greed, treachery, sin, and power beyond mortal imagination. It is a journey to a different time and place—when the Church held the ultimate authority and ambition was cloaked in robes of the richest velvet. But most of all, it is the spellbinding story of a father and his children, bonded by blood, devotion, and dark purpose, who would descend into hell to rise to challenge the heavens; a family whose name is forever emblazoned in the annals of infamy . . . Borgia!

About this title

About the Author:

Mario Puzo was the author of the international bestseller The Godfather and cowrote the screenplays for the Academy Award-winning trio of films based on the book. Puzo's other books include The Last Don and Omerta, both New York Times bestsellers.

From Publishers Weekly:

Before his death in [1999], Puzo (The Last Don) had begun work on a novel featuring the 15th-century Borgias, whom he regarded as "the original crime family." There are obvious parallels between the Borgias and the Corleone clan immortalized in The Godfather, but the resemblances are mostly superficial, at least as they are presented in this limp historical romance. The story opens with Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia manipulating papal elections in 1492 to become the new Pope Alexander. Determined to establish a family dynasty, he appoints his son Cesare cardinal in his stead and, after a strategically engineered episode of incest between siblings Cesare and Lucrezia, begins ruthlessly eliminating rivals and marrying his children into alliances with the offspring of noble families of France and Spain. But Cesare would rather be a soldier, and Lucrezia would rather marry for love; these conflicted desires contribute as much as risky political power plays to undoing the Borgias in a single generation. Though Gino (Puzo's companion, author of Then an Angel Came) is credited for the posthumous completion, Puzo's true collaborator is history, and it proves a difficult partner. Obligated not to deviate from known facts, the narrative whizzes methodically through highlights of the Renaissance, embellishing events with snatches of imagined dialogue, purple prose ("For love can steal free will using no weapons but itself") and cameos by Machiavelli, Michelangelo and da Vinci. Overwhelmed by the vast pageant of events, the characters never achieve dramatic stature. Puzo's diehard fans will surely put the novel on their summer hit list, but they may feel, in Sonny Corleone's words, that "this isn't personal, it's business." Major ad/promo; simultaneous HarperAudio and Large Print edition.

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About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0062089153
• ISBN 13: 9780062089151
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432