Donnie Brasco

For six years, FBI agent Joseph Pistone lived as Donnie Brasco, jewel thief and associate, penetrating the Bonanno crime family deep enough to gather evidence that led to more than a hundred convictions and to his own indictment by the mob that had briefly trusted him. Pistone's account of those years is a portrait of an organization and a subculture from the inside: the hierarchy, the rituals, the violence, the loyalty, and the way the world looks when you have spent so long performing a character that the line between yourself and the performance has become difficult to locate.

Pistone narrates his own memoir, which gives the story an immediacy and authority that no hired voice could replicate. His voice is flat and matter-of-fact about extraordinary events, which is precisely the right register for a story about a man whose survival depended on never overreacting. At just under three hours, this abridged edition moves quickly through the essential story, and Pistone's delivery makes every minute compelling.