The Family Corleone

By: Ed Falco

Narrated by: Bobby Cannavale

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 will face a violent end.

For Vito Corleone, nothing is more important that his family's future. While his youngest children, Michael, Fredo, and Connie, are in school, unaware of their father's true occupation, and his adopted son Tom Hagen is a college student, he worries most about Sonny, his eldest child. Vito pushes Sonny to be a businessman, but Sonny-17 years-old, impatient and reckless-wants something else: To follow in his father's footsteps and become a part of the real family business.

Enjoyed this prequel to The Godfather

I am a big fan of anything Godfather. The Family Corleone is a great book with new and familiar characters to see how the Corleone Family rose to power. Gives the following books and movies a deeper history. Bobby Cannavale was a great reader.

Expanding on Vito was a treat

It was great to hear more character development. We know how many of these character behave but it’s a pleasure to get a glimpse as to how they got there. Pleasure to listen to.

Originality Suffers

While this was an interesting way to build a pre-Godfather story line, I found way too many references to the that original book in the dialogue and action of the characters, which made this feel more like a parody than an original novel. The narrator did a good (?) job in recreating voices of those actors in the Godfather movie, so I could envision each one in front of me.

All in all, a decent, if not enthralling read, that took a long time to get interesting.

a wonderful extension of the story

a wonderful telling of the history of the Corleone family from before The Godfather. really enjoyed more backstop on characters like Frankie "5 Angel's, and especially Luca Brassi.

Really enjoyed it

Nice to have a book about the Corleone Family before THE GODFATHER. Good reader too.