The Godfather
SynopsisPlot
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...
Story
About this book
Mario Puzo's The Godfather, first published in 1969 by G. P. Putnam's Sons, follows the fictional Corleone family across a decade from 1945 to 1955. Set primarily in New York City and Long Beach, New York, the novel traces the operations of Don Vito Corleone, a Mafia patriarch whose power extends through multiple layers of American society. The book also reaches back into Vito's early life, charting his path from childhood to his position at the head of the Cosa Nostra.
As Vito ages, the question of succession becomes central. His eldest son Sonny is already embedded in the family's criminal enterprise, while Michael, a World War II veteran, has kept his distance from that world. Rival crime families and law enforcement both sense vulnerability, and the Corleones face threats from multiple directions at once. The tension between loyalty, ambition, and reluctance runs through much of the story.
Puzo chose an epigraph from Honoré de Balzac for the novel: behind every great fortune there is a crime. That line frames the book's sustained interest in how wealth, violence, and family obligation connect. The dedication reads simply to Anthony Cleri.
