THE MAFIA PRINCESS AVAILABLE TO BUY FROM WATERSTONES

Marisa Merico, the daughter of one of Italy's most notorious Mafia Godfathers, was dazzled by her father, Emilio DiGiovine. To her he was all powerful, sophisticated and loving; to the rest of the world he was staggeringly ruthless. Marisa knew her father would do anything for her, but she hadn't expected just how much he would ask in return.

Born to an English mother who had run away to Italy and married Emilio. When her mother got too deep in the family’s operations she escaped back home to Blackpool, telling her daughter her father was a good-for-nothing petty thief. Marisa’s father, the Mafia Godfather of one of Italy most feared families, was determined to get Marisa back.

Marisa turned her back on her quiet life in Blackpool to join her charming father. Arriving in Milan, Marisa had no idea she was returning to the heart of one of the most notorious drugs, arms and money laundering empires in the world. At first her father shielded her from the family operations and Marisa was overwhelmed by the attention and gifts he lavished on her. But soon the temptation of a new recruit was too great and Marisa was drawn ever deeper into the family's sinister and brutal regime, witnessing things she was too scared to believe.

Marisa fell in love with her father’s chief henchman. The day she eloped was the day her father decided she was ready to be initiated into the true nature of the family business. Suddenly Marisa saw there was no limit to what he would expect her to do for him. She was neck-deep in the family’s terrifying operations with no way to escape. 

She knew it was wrong, she knew she had to get out, but she had no idea how she could break the sacred cosa nostra – and survive. Then, suddenly, an auntie turned supergrass and Marisa, her father and 90 other members of the DiGiovine family were imprisoned in a 6-month trial that gripped Italy. Marisa is now out of prison and lives in the North West with her daughter Lara & son Frank.  

Marisa's extraordinarily story is the most powerful portrayal of a Mafia family to emerge in recent years. It's the perfect balance of shocking violence, dangerous betrayals and enduring love.