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  • The Godfather Returns

  • A Novel
  • Written by: Mark Winegardner
  • Narrated by: Scott Brick
  • Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (9 ratings)

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The Godfather Returns

Written by: Mark Winegardner
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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Publisher's Summary

Thirty-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 best-selling 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 families. Now he wants to consolidate his power, save his marriage, and take his family into legitimate businesses. To do so, he must confront his most dangerous adversary yet, Nick Geraci, a former boxer who worked his way through law school as a Corleone street enforcer, and who is every bit as deadly and cunning as Michael. Their personal cold war will run from 1955 to 1962, exerting immense influence on the lives of America's most powerful criminals and their loved ones.

Sweeping from New York and Washington to Las Vegas and Cuba, The Godfather Returns is the spellbinding story of America's criminal underworld at mid-century and its intersection with the political, legal, and entertainment empires. Mark Winegardner brings an original voice and vision to Mario Puzo's mythic characters while creating several equally unforgettable characters of his own. The Godfather Returns stands on its own as a triumph in a tale about what we love, yearn for, and sometimes have reason to fear...family.

©2004 The Estate of Mario Puzo (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

What the critics say

"The Godfather Returns is not only a real book by a real writer. It's also a real pleasure, a fine swirling epic: bitter, touching, funny, and true." (The New York Times Book Review)
"A phenomenally entertaining, psychologically rich saga that spans the entire Godfather years imagined in novel and film by Mario Puzo....A wholly absorbing novel that's written beautifully, with great skill and passion. Godfather fans will love this tale." (Publishers Weeekly)

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Great Side Character Development

While this book continues the story after Puzo's The Godfather, the central characters have taken something of a back seat to the main dialogue of the book. Returns focuses more on the stories of Fredo, Johnny Fontane, Francesca Corleone (Sonny's daughter) and a new character by the name of Nick Geraci. While this is woven within the events of Godfather 2, there are behind the scenes filler that give more depth to the characters and what they were doing in the times not shown in the movie. Michael becomes more of a background character to his own story, but those stories that are presented are engaging. The character of Geraci is fleshed out so well, that he almost seems to be the centerpoint of the novel and not Michael. This was very much Geraci's book and I'm not mad about it.

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