Borgata: Autumn of Empire

The magnificent conclusion to Louis Ferrante's epic trilogy about the rise and fall of the American mafia.

In the first two volumes of his acclaimed Borgata trilogy, Ferrante unearthed the Sicilian origins of the American mafia, traced its meteoric rise in the United States and showed how it masterfully carved out a unique place in American history. Now, his final stirring volume follows the American mafia's descent into a murderous rampage as men scramble to lord over the remnants of a shrinking empire. We pick up the story as men like Carlo Gambino are ceding power to a new generation of mobsters, men who lack the skill set and training to steer the mob into a new era of prosperity. The painstaking art of diplomacy is replaced by murder. Family values, however twisted, are supplanted by individualism. And the old-world sanctity of omertá gives way to the age of the informant.

Amongst this chaos, a new cast of colourful characters takes to the stage: men like John Gotti, Anthony 'Gaspipe' Casso, Vincent 'Chin' Gigante, Joseph Massino and Carmine 'The Snake' Persico. In forensic detail, Ferrante reveals their attempts to navigate the cataclysmic changes rupturing the mafia from within and without. One borgata is beset by civil war as another undergoes an internal blood purge and a third is toppled by a coup.

This breathtaking conclusion to the Borgata trilogy follows the years of decline from 1975 to 2005 with the insight that only comes with first-hand experience. As an ex-member of the Gambino crime family, Ferrante himself was acquainted with many of the characters between these pages - and was privy to the events that sounded the mob's death knell. As external pressures combine with internal unrest, we discover how moral laxity led to violent bloodbaths that cast the American mafia into a lasting freefall.