ReganBooks is proud to publish The Family (October 2, 2001, $27.00), Mario Puzo’s triumphant final novel. A majestic retelling of the story of the Borgias—the infamous family whose influence transformed Renaissance Italy—the novel was a consuming labor of love for Puzo through the last two decades of his life. The result is an unforgettable epic portrait of Italy’s first great crime family—and a grand conclusion to one of the greatest writing careers of our time.

THE FAMILY brings the lawless world of 15th-century Rome to vivid life, revealing the secrets of the Vatican just as Mario Puzo once laid bare the mysteries of the Mafia.   This extraordinary epic revolves around Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, a larger than life hero propelled by a myriad of passions—power, faith, luxury, women, and an all-powerful love of family. While his blessings are sought by kings and peasants alike, enemies from within and abroad plot his demise. As Alexander strives to restore glory to the Catholic Church and unify the city-states of Italy, he also seeks to direct the lives of his beloved children. But for all Alexander’s love and might, he cannot reverse the legacy of sin that is revisited upon his children.

Alexander’s son, the passionate Cesare, is torn between his father’s wish that he serve the Church, and his own desire to be a warrior. The story of Cesare’s rise and fall is a cautionary tale of obsession and arrogance, a story at once mythic and viscerally suspenseful. He and his sister, Alexander’s beautiful and sensitive daughter Lucrezia, are jointly cursed by an unthinkable secret, served unto them by their father. And the violent fate of Alexander’s heartless son Juan is eventually echoed by the deadly vengeance of the Pope’s neglected son Jofre. Torn between familial love and their own irresistible motivations, the Borgias are by turns each other’s most steadfast saviors—and each other’s greatest threat.

At the time of his death in 1999, though he had reached the end of the story—including writing the epilogue—Puzo had left several chapters unfinished. Working directly from his detailed notes and outline, his longtime companion, novelist Carol Gino, completed the work soon thereafter.  “Mario was fascinated with Renaissance Italy, and especially with the Borgia family,” Gino writes in her Afterword to the book. “He swore that they were the original crime family, and that their adventures were much more treacherous than any of the stories he told about the Mafia. He believed the Popes were the first Dons—Pope Alexander the greatest Don of all.”  An unforgettable saga of grand scope and dark intrigue, THE FAMILY is the crowning achievement of one of the most gifted storytellers of our time.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Mario Puzo (1920-1999) was the author of the international bestseller The Godfather and cowrote the screenplays for the landmark trio of films based on the book. Puzo’s other books include The Last Don and Omerta, also New York  Times bestsellers. His companion, Carol Gino, is the bestselling author of The Nurse’s Story, Rusty’s Story, and Then an Angel Came. She lives on Long Island, NY.

THE FAMILY
By Mario Puzo
Publication Date: October 2, 2001
Publisher: ReganBooks
ISBN: 0-06-039445-5
Price: $27.00/Hardcover
Also Available on Audio