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The Last Don

"The Last Don I like very much because of its energy, and vitality, and invention of story."
--Mario Puzo

The Last Don: Main | Reviews | Excerpt

The Last Don ©1996 by Mario Puzo

Commentary ©1996 Random House, Inc.

Published by Random House, Inc. Paperback published by Ballantine Books

Book dedicated to
Virginia Altman & Domenick Cleri



To the Clericuzio family, life is like a box of hand grenades. Mario Puzo is back with a vengeance in his first Mafia novel since The Godfather, a thrilling saga of the last great American crime family and its reach into Hollywood and Las Vegas.

The Last Don


Twenty-seven years ago, Mario Puzo created a popular classic with the publication of The Godfather. Now, after writing bestselling novels about Las Vegas, Sicily, and Washington, Puzo has at last returned to the subject he knows best--the inner workings of an American crime family. The Last Don is the most ambitious novel of Puzo's legendary career, the product of five years of work and a lifetime of research into the mores of the mob, Vegas, and Hollywood.

The last don is Domenico Clericuzio, a ferocious old man who is determined to secure his family's future in an era of legalized gambling, motion-picture investments, and the threat of government informers. The don is close to achieving his vision when secrets buried in his family's past threaten to undermine his plan and spark a war between two blood cousins.

Only an Academy Award® winner with an insider's knowledge of Hollywood could write such a sizzling account of the movie business.

Only a writer who understands the hearts of thieves could describe mafia life with such authenticity. The Last Don proves once again that Mario Puzo knows where the bodies are buried.


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