Don Vito

Vito Ciancimino - Don Vito da Corleone - spent forty years in the grip of death, mafia, politics, business deals and the secret service. Don Vito recounts years of previously censored contacts between politicians and the mafia - between the Italian State and the Cosa Nostra. The key witness is Massimo, his son, who has given his personal testament for the first time in which he recounts some of the most important events of Italy's recent history. If Roberto Saviano's Gomorra revealed the workings of the mafia system from street level, Don Vito tells us about the people who held the reins of power.

Massimo Ciancimino was born in Palermo in 1963. At eighteen he became his father's aide. In June 2006, he was accused of laundering his father's 'assets' and sentenced to five years in prison, reduced to three and a half on appeal. He has since been collaborating with magistrates to help shed light on his father's secrets and forty years of links between the mafia and politics in Sicily.

Francesco La Licata is a journalist who has written for la Stampa since 1980. He recently joined hands with the national anti-mafia prosecutor, Pietro Grasso, to write Pizzini, veleni e cicoria: La mafia prima e dopo Provenzano (Feltrinelli 2008).

N.S. Thompson was born in Manchester, educated at Oxford and lived a number of years in Italy as Curator of 'Casa Guidi', the Brownings' home in Florence. His prose translations include Leonardo Sciascia, Sicilian Uncles (Granta).

Vito Ciancimino, 'Don Vito of Corleone', was one of the leading players in twentieth-century Sicilian public life. He was a controversial yet enigmatic figure, and for decades the crucial hinge in all the hidden machinations between the Mafia, state authorities, business and the secret services. Blowing the lid off Don Vito's mysteries is a true insider - Massimo Ciancimino - the son who was closest to him for years before turning State whistleblower. Massimo's story, told here for the first time, revisits the dark heart of Italy's recent history. Don Vito is a true epic of crime and politics which reveals in intimate detail the hypocrisies and deadly embraces that have been kept hidden until now.

Vito Ciancimino - Don Vito da Corleone - spent forty years in the grip of death, mafia, politics, business deals and the secret service. Don Vito recounts years of previously censored contacts between politicians and the mafia - between the Italian State and the Cosa Nostra. The key witness is Massimo, his son, who has given his personal testament for the first time in which he recounts some of the most important events of Italy's recent history. If Roberto Saviano's Gomorra revealed the workings of the mafia system from street level, Don Vito tells us about the people who held the reins of power.

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