The Godfather

The Godfather is a crime novel by the Italian-American writer Mario Puzo, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons on 10 March 1969. Its epigraph is a line from Balzac about the crime that lies behind every great fortune.

The book is the story of the Corleone family and of its head, Vito Corleone, known as the Godfather. It covers the years from 1945 to 1955, and it also goes back into Vito's life from his early childhood to his adulthood, so that the family's position is shown as something made rather than inherited.

The novel sets the Corleones among the Five Families of the New York Mafia, who avoid open warfare after the Second World War and manage their disagreements as business. It was the first of a series, and it did more than any other book to bring Italian words such as consigliere, caporegime, Cosa Nostra and omertà into English. The 1972 film adaptation won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and two sequels followed. The book has stayed in print ever since, and it is one of the best-known American crime stories.