Book description
Louis Ferrante was a young rogue who made his reputation on the
streets of New York and later hooked up with the infamous John Gotti
Jr and the Gambino crime family. He pulled off some of the most
lucrative robberies in US history, many of which are still unsolved.
For Lou, life was sweet, and most of the time he had fun wisecracking
his way around town and staying one step ahead of the law.
When the law finally caught up with Louis, he faced a long stretch
in some of the most notoriously dangerous penitentiaries and ended up
living amongst the most violent, not to mention insane, criminals
incarcerated in the US prison system.
But life became more tolerable when, almost by accident, Louis read
his first book and quite unexpectedly a new world opened up to him - a
world which offered him a sanctuary from the brutal chaos of his
everyday existence. During the course of his eight years in prison, he
read everything from Danielle Steel to Caesar's Gallic Wars; he
learned the art of writing and studied the major religions, eventually
choosing to become an Orthodox Jew. And with only limited access to
law books, he somehow managed to successfully appeal his own
conviction and win his freedom.
Gritty, hard-hitting, and yet so often hilarious, Louis Ferrante's
memoir is a poignant and incredibly moving slice of life from the
insider's point of view, written in the bestselling tradition of
Nicholas Pileggi's Goodfellas, Wiseguys and The Sopranos.
Louis Ferrante was born and raised in Queens, New York and was
involved with two of the most notorious organized crime families in New
York. He served nearly 9 years in maximum security prisons, where he
read his first book. He is now an accomplished writer and lives in New
York.
