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Mafia Life: Love, Death and Money at the Heart of Organised Crime Kindle Edition

4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 42 ratings

We see mafias as vast, powerful organisations, harvesting billions of dollars across the globe and wrapping its tentacles around everything from governance to finance. But is this the truth? Travelling from mafia initiation ceremonies in far-flung Russian cities to elite gambling clubs in downtown Macau, Federico Varese sets off in search of answers. Using wiretapped conversations, interviews and previously unpublished police records, he builds up a picture of the real men and women caught up in mafia life, showing their loves and fears, ambitions and disappointments, as well as their crimes.

Mafia Life takes us into the real world of organised crime, where mafia henchmen worry about their bad managers and have high blood pressure, assassinations are bungled as often as they come off, and increasing pressure from law enforcement means that a life of crime is no longer lived in the lap of luxury.

As our world changes, so must the mafia. Globalisation, migration and technology are disrupting their traditions and threatening their revenue streams, and the mafiosi must evolve or die.
Mafia Life is an intense and totally compelling look at an organisation and the daily life of its members, as it gets to grips with the modern world.


Out now in paperback.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01KAEKI48
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Profile Books; Main edition (June 29, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 29, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 7430 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1781252556
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 42 ratings

About the author

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Federico Varese
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Federico Varese is the author of "Mafia Life" (2018), which has been translated into seven languages. In 2001, he published "The Russian Mafia". "The Russian Mafia" won the Ed Hewitt prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in 2002 and has been translated in Dutch and Polish.In 2011, he published "Mafias on the Move: How Organized Crime Conquers New Territories" and edited a collection of papers titled "Organized Crime". He also contributes to "The Times Literary Supplement" and has written for "The London Review of Books", "Dissent Magazine", and "The Times (London)".

He lives in Oxford, where he is a Professor of Criminology at Oxford University and Head of the Department of Sociology.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
42 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2017
Fantastic!!
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Carlo
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read
Reviewed in Italy on May 11, 2018
Mafia Life is a deep dive journey into the unknown world of crime.
Though it is written by an University Professor, nothing has to do with a school lesson.
It's an intriguing evolve of unexpected truth.
A. Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars There is good details about the workings of the Russian mafia
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 30, 2017
Interesting book. There is good details about the workings of the Russian mafia, the Yakuza and the Triads which is uncommon as well as the more common Italian American and Sicilian mafias.
It does read like a study paper though rather than a story but this shouldn't detract from the fact that you will learn a lot about the workings of different organised crime groups from different parts of the world.
Zahid Arif
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2017
A very interesting read; finished it in two nights.
Dee Dee
5.0 out of 5 stars A Vory way of life
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2019
This is a thoughtful and forensic insight into organised criminal culture. A really enjoyable read that unpicks Mafia networks in Japan, Russia, the USA, Italy and the UK. I finished reading it over two days. Excellent.
Heather Hayes
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 9, 2017
Great. Heather

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