Omerta
Written by Mario Puzo
Narrated by Michael Imperioli
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
THE FINAL CHAPTER IN MARIO PUZO'S LANDMARK MAFIA TRILOGY
Mario Puzo spent the last three years of his life writing Omerta, the concluding installment in his saga about power and morality in America. In The Godfather, he introduced us to the Corleones. In The Last Don, he told the wicked tale of the Clericuzios. In Omerta, Puzo chronicles the affairs of the Apriles, a family on the brink of legitimacy in a world of criminals.
Don Raymonde Aprile is an old man wily enough to retire gracefully from organized crime after a lifetime of ruthless conquest. Having kept his three children at a distance, he's ensured that they are now respectable members of the establishment: Valerius is an army colonel who teaches at West Point, Marcantonio is an influential TV network executive, and Nicole is a corporate litigator with a weakness for pro bono cases to fight the death penalty. To protect them from harm, and to maintain his entrée into the legitimate world of international banking, Don Aprile has adopted a "nephew" from Sicily, Astorre Viola, whose legal guardian made the unfortunate decision to commit suicide in the trunk of a car. Astorre is an unlikely enforcer-a macaroni importer with a fondness for riding stallions and recording Italian ballads with his band.
Though Don Aprile's retirement is seen as a business opportunity by his last Mafia rival, Timmona Portella, it is viewed with suspicion by Kurt Cilke, the FBI's special agent in charge of investigating organized crime. Cilke has achieved remarkable success in breaking down the bonds between families, cultivating high-ranking sources who in return for federal protection have violated omerta-Sicilian for "code of silence," the vow among men of honor that, until recently, kept them from betraying their secrets to the authorities.
As Cilke and the FBI mount their campaign to wipe out the Mafia once and for all, Astorre Viola and the Apriles find themselves in the midst of one last war, a conflict in which it is hard to distinguish who, if anyone, is on the right side of the law, and whether mercy or vengeance is the best course of action.
Rich with suspense, dark humor, and the larger-than-life characters who have turned Mario Puzo's novels into modern myths, Omerta is a powerful epitaph for the Mafia at the turn of a new century, and a final triumph for a great American storyteller.
Mario Puzo
Mario Puzo was an Italian American author and screenwriter, best known for his novel and screenplay The Godfather (1969), which was later co-adapted into a film by Francis Ford Coppola. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in both 1972 and 1974. He is also the author of The Fourth K, a story of revenge and political power with a Kennedy in the White House.
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Reviews for Omerta
268 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a good read, not as exciting as the Godfather but still well worth a read. The main character is Astorre Viola he is the nephew of Mafia Don Raymonde Aprile who is assassinated. Aprile had retired but still owned some lucrative banks. His 2 boys and daughter don't know who carried out this murder. The FBI and Police don't really want to get involved. Three of Astorre's old cronies want to buy the banks to launder money from drug deals Astorre finds out who killed Aprile kills them and the broker, he also sets up the FBI and other Mafia dons. There is a big shoot out. Astorre survives and moves to Sicily his homeland. This story was really great in places and other pats so unbelievable. Well read more in the series though.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fitting conclusion to the Godfather trilogy.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This was Puzo's last novel before he died, and I must say it read very much like an old man clinging to an excellent reputation. The Godfather is one of the greatest books I've ever read and the only book to make me cry, and whilst I think the "romance" of the Mafia has faded from my concious slightly, I still find it a trifle exciting. Omerta, however, felt boring and lack-lustre. There felt, even from the first few chapters, to be far too much going on and too many people involved: whilst mafia's certainly do contain more people than first appears on the surface, to work a novel of the mafia, one would have to forget this notion slightly if a reader is to make sense of what is happening. Once the rest of Puzo's works have been read, maybe I shall return to this one...
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A good read, but needed more character developmentI've always enjoyed Mario Puzo books, and I have read just about all of his books. Omerta is 'The Godfather' set in the early 1990s. Astorre Viola, sets out to find his uncle's killer. While he is doing this the FBI is investigating the family business and there's sections that cover Sicily.I wanted to give this book 4 stars but while the writing was fine, and the dialogue great, I wanted more character development which made Godfather a classic. So I gave it 3 stars, 3 1/2 would be truer. Still, the story was a great way to end this saga of murder, crime and family relationships.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Moderately entertaining thriller, with the same mix of intrigue, forceful characters—and romanticising of criminals and comically bad prose—that you will find in "The Godfather".
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is the first book by Mario Puzo that I have read and I was pleasantly satisfied. It is also the last book by Mario Puzo to be published before his death.Omerta (the Sicilian code of silence) is a true Mafia story. The plot centers on Astorre Viola, the son of an elderly Silcilian Don who dies when the boy is very young and leaves his son to be raised by Don Raymonde Aprile as his own in New York.Unbeknownst to the Don's own children (who have no actual knowledge of their father's business), Astorre is being groomed as the retired Don's successor. When Don Aprile is assassinated, Astorre must protect the family's assets as well as the Don's children from a group of rival families who will stop at nothing to gain controlling interest in the Aprile's banking business to use for their own money laundering schemes.The book moves along at a brisk pace and, while a bit predictable and stereotypical of the crime genre, kept my interest throughout. There are definite undertones from time to time of events being somewhat similar to the Godfather at times, but overall it's a good story.I enjoyed Omerta and will definitely move on to Puzo's earlier works.Oh, and NEVER cross the family!
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Puzo practically wrote this from beyond the grave - a new meaning to the term 'ghost writer,' and it feels like it belongs buried with him. I've not had the chance to read the original Godfather books yet, but on this evidence there's little chance that I will; Puzo's prose is clumsy, constipated and troublesome; there's no clear reason why the book should even be called "Omerta," which is the mafiosa's code of silence and not ratting each other out. Which of course they all do. So tiresome.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Just as intreguing and as spell binding as The Godfather. Wonder why it never became a major motion picture, or, if so, why it isn't on everyone's must see list. Life lessons abound, for those of you wanting to attend Italian business school.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Godfather was good - this is really not.