The Dark Arena: A Novel [Paperback]

Mario Puzo won international acclaim forTheGodfatherand his other Mafia novels. But before creating those masterpieces, Puzo wrote his first acclaimed novelThe Dark Arena–an astounding story of a war-scarred young American in a battle against corruption and betrayal. . . .

After coming home at the end of World War II, Walter Mosca finds himself too restless for his civilian role in America. So he returns to Germany to find the woman he had once loved–and to start some kind of life in a vanquished country. But ahead of Walter stretches a dark landscape of defeat and intrigue, as he succumbs to the corrupting influences of a malevolent time. Now he enters a different kind of war, one in which he must make a fateful decision–between love and ambition, passion and greed, life and death. . . ."Fierce, intense, compelling."
-The Boston Globe

"ONE OF THE FINEST WORKS OF FICTION TO COME OUT OF THIS COUNTRY’S OCCUPATION OF GERMANY."
-The Nation

"PUZO TELLS HIS STORY BRUTALLY, VIOLENTLY, AND UNDOUBTEDLY VERY MUCH AS IT ALL MIGHT HAVE BEEN."
-San Francisco ChronicleMario Puzowas born in New York and, following military service in World War II, attended New York’s New School for Social Research and Columbia University. His bestselling novel,The Godfather, was preceded by two critically acclaimed novels,The Dark ArenaandThe Fortunate Pilgrim. In 1978, he publishedFools Die, followed byThe Sicilian,The Fourth K, and the second installment in his Mafia trilogy,The Last Don. Mario Puzo also wrote many screenplays, including those forEarthquake,Superman, and all threeGodfathermovies, for which he received two Academy Awards. He died in July 1999 at his home on Long Island, New York, at the age of seventy-eight.one
 
Walter Mosca felt a sense of excitemelÛ