I stopped reading once I realized I had seen the movie. Entertaining and tightly scripted though. ( )

En ce moment, je n'arrête pas de lire des romans de gangsters, des comédies, plutôt. "Malavita" correspond à cette humeur, et je suis contente de mon choix: la famille "Blake", famille de gangster repenti (M. Blake), est relocalisée à Cholon-sur-Avre (fictif), dans le cadre de la protection de témoins. Du moins, c'est ce qui arrive quand on a fait coffrer le Parrain de tous les Parrains aux Etats-Unis. Leur installation en Normandie (depuis la côte d'Azur) ne se fait pas sans situations cocasses et événements qui s'enchaînent. La voix narrative correspond aux états d'âmes des personnages et rajoute à la charactérisation. Le style d'écriture est assez facile à lire, il y a de l'ironie et de l'humour, ce qui me plaît beaucoup. Comme j'ai habité à côté de l'Avre en Normandie pendant 4 ans, j'apprécie d'autant plus les références locales. Bref, je recommande la lecture de ce livre pour son humour et aussi pour se mettre de bonne humeur. ( )

Un excellent livre, bien écrit et plein d'humour (noir). Il se lit tout seul! Décidément, j'aime bien Tonino Benacquista! :) ( )

This is my favorite book in a long time. While humorous, for the most part fairly subtle and not overdone. I don't know if the movie has been released yet or if it goes by the title of the book, but I'm sure it will be popular. I's glad to have read the book first. ( )

Giovanni Manzoni is a New Jersey mob boss turned stool pigeon for the FBI. His testimony has been responsible for sending dozens of wise guys to jail, including the cap di tutti capos, Don Mimino, so naturally, there is a price on his head. It soon becomes apparent that he cannot safely live under the witness protection program in the United States, so his FBI handlers move him to France where we find him living in a small town in Normandy under the name of Fred Blake when the story opens.

Fred is bored and turns to writing his memoirs with hilarious results. His wife is trying to find a place of meaning in the small community and the children are navigating the social structure at the local lycee.
Meanwhile the FBI handlers are camped out across the street keeping an eye on all the neighbors and trying to keep Fred and his family alive.

This is harder to do than one would think, and when, through a bizarre chain of events, Don Mimino figures out where they are living, it sets off a chain of events that leads to Mafia mayhem at its finest.

This book is a quick, fun read on the order of Carl Hiassim and has been made into a movie called "The Family" starring Robert DeNiro
(ho else now that Jame Gandofini is dead?). ( )