Flight of the Rondone Book (Hardcover)

Flight of the Rondone is a true rags to riches tale the New York Times stated

is “meant for television.” The protagonist, a high school dropout, is nicknamed

in Italian U Carneveil (Walking Circus) for his entertaining and eccentric

nature. Patrick Girondi starts his career shining shoes, stealing car parts,

and escaping life-threatening situations while outwitting the Chicago police.

He claws up to being a famous success story on the Oprah Show. His fortunes

quickly change when his eldest son, Santino, is diagnosed with a fatal blood

disease. Girondi hunts for a cure in a drama that has boundless implications in

the world of gene therapy. As Girondi writes, “I’d been strangled, shot at,

skated more than twenty arrests, made it through 3 FBI witch-hunts and went

from the docks to trading and big money. I would see my son cured. How hard

could it be?” After decades of struggle, he delivered the world’s first

commercial batch of vector with the potential to cure Sickle Cell Disease and

Thalassemia. But again, the success of the cure—and the fate of his son—is

imperiled, in a world of lab jackets, mysterious deaths, and cut-throat Wall

Street banksters.

This is a story of love, beating the odds, or as Girondi calls it, pure luck.

It is a gritty and realistic tale told with little regard for empire or

etiquette.