When Mario Puzo died in 1999, he had spent 15 years or so, on and off, working on this novel about the Borgias: Rodrigo, who became Pope Alexander VI, and his famously villainous offspring, Cesare and Lucrezia. Puzo put a lot of work into the story, and it shows: this posthumously published tale is one of his most satisfying novels in a long, long time, far superior to most of his recent work. The saga is lush, full of detail, with characters who manage to be larger than life while seeming entirely realistic. The dialogue is slightly ornamented but never clumsy, and the plot is appropriately epic in scope, mixing fact and fiction seamlessly. Families, of course, were Puzo's signature theme, and in the fifteenth-century Vatican he finds a family as complex and multitextured as the Corleones. The book was completed by Puzo's companion, novelist Carol Gino, but its tone is pure Puzo, start to finish. A thoroughly entertaining posthumous present from one of the masters of popular fiction.

David Pitt

“One of his most satisfying works….A thoroughly entertaining posthumous present from one of the masters of popular fiction.”
—Booklist

“Dazzling, passionate, a masterwork that ranks with Puzo’s best.”
—Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguys

Mario Puzo’s final masterwork. A sweeping epic saga of corruption, greed, treachery, and sin, The Family is the ultimate crowning achievement of the #1 New York Times bestselling novelist who gave the world The Godfather, arguably the greatest Mafia crime novel ever written. In The Family, Puzo—whom the Washington Post calls, “A serious American talent”—plunges reader into the colorful tumult of the Italian Renaissance, immersing them in the roiling intrigues and deadly affairs of the remarkable family whose name has always been synonymous with power, corruption, poison, and murder: the infamous Borgias.

A labor of love two decades in the making, The Family marks the final triumph of one of the greatest storytellers of our time.

"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!

From the back cover:

What is a family? Mario Puzo first answered that question, unforgettably, in his landmark bestseller The Godfather; with the creation of the Corleones he forever redefined the concept of blood loyalty. Now, thirty years later, Puzo enriches us all with his ultimate vision of the subject, in a masterpiece that crowns his remarkable career: the story of the greatest crime family in Italian history -- the Borgias.

In The Family, this singular novelist transports his readers back to fifteenth-century Rome and reveals the extravagance and intrigue of the Vatican as surely as he once revealed the secrets of the Mafia. At the story's center is Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, a man whose lustful appetites for power, luxury, and women were matched only by his consuming love of family. Surrounding him are his extraordinary children: the simple, unloved Jofre; the irascible, heartless Juan; the beautiful, strong-willed Lucrezia; and the passionate warrior Cesare, Machiavelli's friend and inspiration. Their intermingled stories constitute a symphony of human emotion and behavior, from pride to romance to jealousy to betrayal and murderous rage. And their time, place, and characters are recaptured in all their earthy, human grandeur, with the unerring insight and compassion that were Mario Puzo's great gifts.

Buy The Family now at your favorite retailer

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