A searing evocation of the Mafia underworld and an instant classic, this novel introduced readers to the first family of American crime fiction, the Corleones, and the powerful legacy of tradition, blood, and honor that would be passed from father to son. With its exquisitely detailed characters who, despite leading unconventional lifestyles within a notorious crime family, experience the triumphs and failures of the human condition, and its themes of the seduction of power, the pitfalls of greed, and family allegiance, this is the definitive gangster novel.