A collection of prize-winning short stories from the author of The Family Corleone. Whether writing about a 22-year-old Wisconsin boy in London who’s having misgivings about becoming a drug smuggler, or an aging actor trying to seduce his friend’s wife, Falco’s stories are always interested in the choices his characters make and in the inevitable consequences of those choices. The stories in Acid were first published in The Atlantic Monthly, The Best American Short Stories, The Missouri Re...

From discursive essay-poems to tightly constructed lyrics, Ed Falco’s X in the Tickseed examines a world that reveals itself through its mysteries, reflecting upon the ephemeral nature of all things. In the series of poems that bookend the collection, a speaker identified only as X reviews personal history and relationships, speculating, pondering, and questioning in the face of a baffling universe. Peppered between the X poems, artists as varied as Artemisia Gentileschi, Frank O’...

An exhilarating and profound novel of tradition and violence and of loyalty and betrayal, The Family Corleone will appeal to the legions of fans who can never get enough of The Godfather.New York, 1933: The city and the nation are in the depths of the Great Depression. The crime families of New York have prospered in this time, but with the coming end of Prohibition, a battle is looming that will determine which organizations will rise and which wi...

Set during the Great Depression and based in part on real characters and a series of historical events, Toughs follows the story of Loretto Jones as he finds his life intertwined with the fate of Vince Coll, a 23-year-old Irish gangster who for a brief moment rose to the level of a national celebrity during his war with Dutch Schultz, Owen Madden, and Lucky Luciano. Tagged Mad Dog Coll” after killing five-year-old Michael Vengelli in a botched assassination attempt, Coll was the ...

In Wolf Moon Blood Moon, Ed Falco considers love and the loss of love, what we have today and what we remember of yesterday, the promise of youth and the disappointments and pleasures of aging. By turns whimsical, meditative, and poignant, these poems examine the joys and sorrows of living.The first section offers a meditation on loss, as the author explores bereavements both personal and remote. From an elderly mother and her stroke-impaired son struggling to have a simpl...

In this entertaining and insightful essay, Mario Puzo chronicles his rise from struggling writer to overnight success as author of The Godfather .Featuring a foreword by Ed Falco, author of The Family CorleoneWith equal parts cynicism and humor, Puzo recounts the book deal and his experiences in Hollywood while writing the screenplay for the Academy Award-winning movie. ...

An exhilarating and profound novel of tradition, violence, loyalty, and betrayal—a prequel to The Godfather.New York, 1933: The city and the nation are in the depths of the Great Depression. The crime families of New York have prospered in this time, but with the coming end of Prohibition, a battle is looming that will determine which organizations will rise and which will face a violent end.For Vito Corleone, nothing is more important that his fam...

The third, and final, installment in Mario Puzo's epic chronicle of the Corleone crime family—one of the most enduring lineages in American literature and cinema—achieves a stunning crescendo with a story that imagines the role of the Mafia in the assassination of a young, charismatic president.It's impossible to overstate the influence of Mario Puzo's The Godfather, which has become an essential part of our cultural lexicon. Puzo's novel about the secret world of orga...

THE MISSING YEARS FROM THE GREATEST CRIME SAGA OF ALL TIMEThirty-five years ago, Mario Puzo’s great American tale, The Godfather, was published, and popular culture was indelibly changed. Now, in The Godfather Returns, acclaimed novelist Mark Winegardner continues the story–the years not covered in Puzo’s bestselling book or in Francis Ford Coppola’s classic films.It is 1955. Michael Corleone has won a bloody victory in the war among New York’s crime famil...

After Mario Puzo wrote his internationally acclaimed The Godfather, he has often been imitated but never equaled. Puzo's classic novel, The Sicilian, stands as a cornerstone of his work—a lushly romantic, unforgettable tale of bloodshed, justice, and treachery. . . .The year is 1950. Michael Corleone is nearing the end of his exile in Sicily. The Godfather has commanded Michael to bring a young Sicilian bandit named Salvatore Guiliano back with him to America. But...

50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION—WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY FRANCIS FORD COPPOLAMario Puzo’s classic saga of an American crime family that became a global phenomenon—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.With its brilliant and brutal portrayal of the Corleone family, The Godfather burned its way into our national consciousness. This unforgettable saga of crime and corruption, passion and ...

“A splendid piece of crime fiction . . . a fitting cap to a tremendous career . . . Through it all, Puzo keeps the heat on and keeps the reader enthralled with his characters and his story.”—The Denver PostTo Don Raymonde Aprile’s children, he was a loyal family member, their father’s adopted “nephew.” To the FBI he was a man who would rather ride his horses than do Mob business. No one knew why Aprile, the last great American don, had adopted Astorre Viol...