Unresolved questions now answered

Four years ago today, I got an email, via my agent, from somebody I didn't know, asking me to submit a proposal to write a sequel to Mario Puzo's The Godfather. At first it struck me as an interesting idea, but not the kind of book I write. I figured it'd be some cynical publisher's gimmick, a quick-buck piece of crap. Isn't that what you thought when you first heard about it? But then, a few days later, as I was about to delete the email, I read it more closely. It was from Jonathan Karp, who'd been Puzo's editor for his last several books. The book had Mario Puzo's blessing and that of his family. And what they wanted seemed really smart. To quote that original (once deeply confidential) email, they were looking for ...

"Someone who is in roughly the same place in life Mario Puzo was when he wrote The Godfather, -- at mid-career, with at least two acclaimed literary novels to his credit, who writes in a commanding and darkly comic omniscient voice. The author we choose will bring his own vision to these characters, just as Francis Ford Coppola did in the "Godfather" movies. Whoever inherits this series will be given the opportunity to build his or her own fictional world on the foundation created by Mario Puzo. Our objective is a popular but ambitious novel worthy of major review attention. The voice, perspective, and storytelling must be original."

Now, four years later, the job is done. The Godfather Returns was published to strong reviews in 2004 and The Godfather's Revenge is off to a good start, too (see the starred review from Kirkus).

The novel--set in the sun-drenched aquamarine splendor of the early years of the Space Age and the raging paranoia of the Cold War--concludes the Corleone Family saga. In doing so, The Godfather's Revenge answers questions that even casual fans of The Godfather must have wondered about, questions unresolved until, well, now.

Such as:

-- What's the real story behind why Sonny Corleone brought Tom Hagen home to live with his family?

-- We know (in Godfather Part III) that Tom Hagen died, but nobody ever talks about it. What happened?

-- What did the Mafia -- and the Corleone Family -- have to do with the greatest mystery of the Twentieth Century: the possible conspiracy to assassinate the young, handsome president of the United States?

-- Whatever happened to Johnny Fontane, who's so compelling early in Puzo's novel but who all but disappears from view during the years of his greatest fame and fortune?

-- Whatever happened to Jack Woltz, in the years after he awoke one morning from uneasy dreams to find himself trapped in his bed alongside a gigantic severed horse's head?

-- Whatever happened to Nick Geraci, the greatest earner the Corleone Family ever had, who goes into hiding at the end of The Godfather Returns, provoking Michael Corleone's reluctant return to New York and to his position as Godfather?

-- How, finally, is Michael Corleone's desire to take the Family business legit resolved? This is the biggest thing driving Michael Corleone, the thing he's yearning for, yet its resolution is never quite achieved in any of the other books or films.

On November 7, Revenge -- and the answers to all these questions -- can be yours.

With respect,
Mark