Mario Gianluigi Puzo (October 15, 1920 - July 2, 1999) was a two time Academy Award-winning Italian American author and screenwriter, known for his novels about the Mafia, especially The Godfather (1969), which he later co-adapted into a film with Francis Ford Coppola.

The novel is about Pope Alexander VI and his family. Puzo spent over twenty years working on the book off and on, while he wrote others. It was finished by his longtime girlfriend, Carol Gino. Effectively his last novel. The book has a factual core, with fictional events used to create the unknown aspects of Pope Alexander VI, formerly Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, and his family's life. The book is peopled by real characters, including Niccolò Machiavelli, and the real relationships with members of the Borgia family.

The story alternates between the movie industry and the Las Vegas casinos, showing how the Mafia is linked to them both. The last plan of Don Domenico Clericuzio, an aging mafia boss, is to eventually make his family enter the legitimate world and melt in the American society. Twenty-five years later, his grandson Dante and his grandnephew Cross (Croccifixio) make their way through life, and the eighty-year-old Don is half-retired. Cross, who holds a majority share in a Las Vegas casino, is supposed to become the strong arm of the family. However, when he refuses to take part in the murder of an old friend, Dante is left to be the sole tough guy. Dante's greed for power and blood lead him to plan the elimination of his relatives, who are an obstacle to the desire to become as powerful as the old Don himself. Cross, who is aware of being on the black list, precedes Dante and catches him in a trap. Having acted against the family, he waits for the Don's vendetta, but, to his own surprise, his life is spared and he's only condemned to exile. The story concludes with the revelation that the Don had planned this outcome all along for the long term survival of the family.