Simon & Schuster seizes Gingeras' 'globe-trotting' history of the mafia

Simon & Schuster has signed Ryan Gingeras’ "thrilling", Mafia: A Global History. 

Kris Doyle, deputy publishing direction in adult non-fiction, acquired world all-language rights from Georgina Capel at Georgina Capel Associates. Ben Loehnen, editor-in-chief at Avid Press, bought America rights. There are currently "ongoing" auctions in Holland, Italy, Germany and Hungary.

Set primarily after 1800, Mafia tracks the following 200 years where the "political, economic and social forces most relevant to the development of mafias took shape". In these years we see the rise of those figures most synonymous with the idea of the mafia: Capone, Escobar, Du, Lansky, Mogilevich, El Chapo and the Krays to name a few. "To understand these characters, and the gangs they led, Mafia will take readers on intimate tours of the locales that birthed their notoriety: Chicago, Sinaloa, Istanbul, Shanghai or the East End," the publisher said.

Gingeras’ history will also show how these mafia organisations came to shape and reflect modern states, economies and societies. 

Doyle commented: "It is a sweeping, globe-trotting history that uses the lens of mafias to tell a new story of how our world was made. Ryan discusses subjects such as the establishment of the modern economy and the romanticisation of mafias in contemporary culture. He explains why illicit industries are dominated by criminal syndicates and how mafiosi play notable roles in the making of political regimes." 

Gingeras, a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and the author of six books, said: "Mafia: A Global History is the product of nearly two decades of research in archives and libraries on both sides of Atlantic. It is a work that is grounded in my career as a historian of violence, empire and crime and reflects aspects of my family’s century-long history of living in the Bronx, New York. Of the seven books I’ve authored, Mafia is my most ambitious and my personal work to date."