The Godfather Returns
Written by Mark Winegardner
Narrated by Joe Grifasi
3/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
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 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 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, including
Tom Hagen, the Corleone Family's lawyer and consigliere, who embarks on a political career in Nevada while trying to protect his brother;
Francesca Corleone, daughter of Michael's late brother Sonny, who is suddenly learning her family's true history and faces a difficult choice;
Don Louie Russo, head of the Chicago mob, who plays dumb but has wily ambitions for muscling in on the Corleones' territory;
Peter Clemenza, the stalwart Corleone underboss, who knows more Family secrets than almost anyone;
Ambassador M. Corbett Shea, a former Prohibition-era bootlegger and business ally of the Corleones', who wants to get his son elected to the presidency-and needs some help from his old friends;
Johnny Fontane, the world's greatest saloon singer, who ascends to new heights as a recording artist, cozying up to Washington's power elite and maintaining a precarious relationship with notorious underworld figures;
Kay Adams Corleone, who finally discovers the truth about her husband, Michael-and must decide what it means for their marriage and their children and
Fredo Corleone, whose death has never been fully explained until now, and whose betrayal of the Family was part of a larger and more sinister chain of events.
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
Mark Winegardner
Mark Winegardner is the author of the novel The Veracruz Blues and three books of nonfiction. A regular contributor to GQ, he has also published work in the New York Times Magazine, Playboy, Esquire, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, Doubletake, and other magazines. He is a professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University in Tallahassee, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
Related to The Godfather Returns
Related audiobooks
Top Hoodlum: Frank Costello, Prime Minister of the Mafia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Covenant: The Michael Franzese Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Answer Them Nothing: Bringing Down the Polygamous Empire of Warren Jeffs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sex With Presidents: The Ins and Outs of Love and Lust in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Political Incorrections: The Best Opening Monologues from Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Failures of the Presidents: From the Whiskey Rebellion and War of 1812 to the Bay of Pigs and War in Iraq Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Breaking Blue Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The President Street Boys: Growing Up Mafia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mob Cops: The Shocking Rise and Fall of New York's "Mafia Cops" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I, Sniper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5True Believer: Stalin's Last American Spy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rio Hondo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarbra: The Way She Is Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Double Cross: The Explosive Inside Story of the Mobster Who Controlled America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mr. Wilson's War: From the Assassination of McKinley to the Defeat of the League of Nations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Public Enemies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Giving A Damn: Racism, Romance and Gone with the Wind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Better than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An American Marriage: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContinental Contract Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Most Blessed of the Patriarchs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Cultural Heritage Fiction For You
The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The City of Brass: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Council of Dolls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Woman Is No Man: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poppy War: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lovecraft Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inconvenient Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stationery Shop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evil Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Night Watchman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lawn Boy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mules and Men Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sicilian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kingdom of Copper: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mustard Seed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Zone of Interest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Keeper of Jaipur Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond the Rice Fields Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hula: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mountains Sing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Minor Detail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Künstlers in Paradise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois: An Oprah’s Book Club Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sunshine Nails: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Memory Keeper of Kyiv: A powerful, important historical novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dona Cleanwell Leaves Home: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dazzling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where Jasmine Blooms: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Godfather Returns
89 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Does an extraordinary job of filling in the gaps between the first two films as well as introducing new characters just as colorful and interesting as the original players. Fine work for Winegardner who obviously had big shoes to fill.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5One of those times when ya gotta ask yourself, Did it need to be written? Didn't feel like it really added to the whole mystique of the Godfather legend.