Tough guy - Louis Ferrante

Louis Ferrante was a young rogue who made his reputation on the streets of New York by leading a gang of mobsters and shooting a neighbourhood bully. Later Louis hooked up with the infamous John Gotti Jr and the Gambino crime family and pulled off some of the most lucrative robberies in US history, many of which are still unsolved. Life was sweet, and most of the time he had fun.

When the law finally caught up with Louis, indictments came from the Secret Service, the Organized Crime Force and the FBI. He found himself facing a long stretch in some of the most notoriously dangerous penitentiaries, and living amongst the most violent, not to mention insane, criminals incarcerated in the US prison system. Life in jail was gruelling and uncompromisingly brutal, and Louis needed his wits about him day and night just to stay alive.

But life became more tolerable when, almost by accident, Louis read his first book and quite unexpectedly a new world opened up to him.During the course of his eight years in prison, he read everything from Danielle Steel to Caesar'sGallic 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 teach himself enough to successfully appeal his own conviction.

Gritty, hard-hitting, and yet so often hilarious, Louis Ferrante's memoir recounts his meteoric rise to the upper echelons of the mafia hierarchy, his time in prison, and his struggle to turn his life around. It's also a poignant and incredibly moving slice of life in the tradition of Nicholas Pileggi'sGoodfellas,WiseguysandThe Sopranos.