Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story

Bill Bonanno could be just another 66-year-old retiree, gone to Tucson, Arizona, to live out his remaining years in a hospitable climate. But he's not. "I come from a long line of Mafiosi," he informs us, taking pains to establish the difference between Mafiosi, a term "rooted in the character and the values of the men and women who were the everyday makers of Sicilian history," and the fictional Mafia. (Bonanno knows from crime fiction: there are those who say that he's the real-life model for Michael Corleone, and he does not deny it.) Bound by Honor is as much a family saga as it is a true crime story, and Bonanno's insightful self-reflection guarantees a distinctive degree of honesty and depth.