UNCOVER THE VERY BEST IN CRIME AND THRILLER WRITING
The book behind the Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated Netflix film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel
‘The movie event of the year’ – Rolling Stone
‘One of Martin Scorsese’s best films ever’ – Guardian
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The Irishman is an epic saga of organised crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked for legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th Century.
Spanning decades, Sheeran’s story chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa, and it offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organized crime: its inner workings, rivalries and connections to mainstream politics.
Sheeran would rise to a position of such prominence that in a RICO suit against The Commission of La Cosa Nostra, the US Government would name him as one of only two non-Italians in conspiracy with the Commission. Sheeran is listed alongside the likes of Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano and Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno. In the course of nearly five years of recorded interviews, Sheeran confessed to Charles Brandt that he handled more than twenty-five hits for the mob, and Brandt turned Sheeran’s story into a page-turning true crime classic.
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Reviews
The book Brandt has written gives new meaning to the term 'guilty pleasure.' It promises to clear up the mystery of Hoffa's demise, and appears to do so. Sheeran not only admits he was in on the hit, he says it was he who actually pulled the trigger - and not just on Hoffa but on dozens of other victims, including many, he alleges, dispatched on Hoffa's orders. This last seems likely to spur a reappraisal of Hoffa's career.
My source in the Bufalino family . . . read I Heard You Paint Houses. All the Bufalino guys read it. This old-time Bufalino guy told me he was shocked. He couldn't believe Sheeran confessed all that stuff to [Brandt]. It's all true.
If the made men Brandt rubbed up against during his five years with Sheeran suspected what Sheeran was confessing to him on tape, they'd both have been promptly whacked.
Told with such economy and chilling force as to make The Sopranos suddenly seem overwrought and theatrical.
This is the greatest Mafia book I ever read, and I read them all. It is so authentic.
Review quotes for the film:
Exquisitely made, every detail carefully considered, every location perfectly picked... it feels utterly transporting.
A monument is a complicated thing. This one is big and solid - and also surprisingly, surpassingly delicate.
A coldly enthralling, long-form knockout - a majestic Mob epic with ice in its veins.
Scorsese knows his audience and reputation so well that the film constantly plays with, and defies, expectations.
One of his most satisfying films in decades.
It runs a minute shy of three and a half hours, and I wouldn't wish it any shorter.
A sprawling gangland saga that's by turns flinty, amusing and richly nostalgic.
Masterful.