“A splendid piece of crime fiction . . . a fitting cap to a tremendous career . . . Through it all, Puzo keeps the heat on and keeps the reader enthralled with his characters and his story.”—The Denver Post To Don Raymonde Aprile’s children, he was a loyal family member, their father’s adopted “nephew.” To the FBI he was a man who would rather ride his horses than do Mob business. No one knew why Aprile, the last great American don, had adopted Astorre Viola many years before in Sicily; no one suspected how he had carefully trained him . . . and how, while the don’s children claimed respectable careers in America, Astorre Viola waited for his time to come. That time has arrived. The don is dead, his murder one bloody act in a drama of ambition and deceit—from the deadly compromises made by an FBI agent to the greed of two crooked NYPD detectives and the frightening plans of a South American Mob kingpin. In a collision of enemies and lovers, betrayers and loyal soldiers, Astorre Viola will claim his destiny. Because after all these years, this moment is in his blood. . . . “In Omerta (the Sicilian code for silence), Puzo sements his reputation as a page-turning storyteller.”—Detroit Free Press “More tasty twists than a plate of fusilli . . . Cunning entanglements with an FBI gangbuster, crooked cops and strong women sauce up this deft and passionate last novel by the Balzac of the Mafia.”—Time

マフィア文学の巨匠マリオ・プーゾが遺した本作は、単なる犯罪小説の枠を超え、血脈と沈黙の掟「オメルタ」に殉じる男たちの哀愁を描き切った至高の悲劇です。主人公アストーレが体現する、伝統的な騎士道精神と現代的な野心の葛藤は、プーゾ文学の集大成と言える深みを持っています。運命に翻弄されながらも、自らの血に刻まれた宿命を静かに受け入れる姿には、読者の魂を揺さぶる圧倒的なカタルシスが宿っています。 映像化作品では、プーゾ特有のオペラ的な緊迫感が見事に視覚化されていますが、原作でしか味わえない真の魅力は、登場人物たちの内面に渦巻く重厚な心理描写にあります。沈黙の掟という目に見えない鎖がいかにして人の心を縛り、あるいは高潔に保つのか。テキストならではの緻密な思索と映像のダイナミズムが共鳴し合うことで、物語の背後にある「失われゆく美学」への挽歌がより鮮烈に響き渡るのです。