The Fortunate Pilgrim is a 1965 novel by American author Mario Puzo.

[1] Mario Puzo considered the novel his finest, most poetic, and literary work.

[citation needed] In one of his last interviews he stated that he was saddened by the fact that The Godfather, a fiction he never liked,[citation needed] outshone the novel based on his mother's honest immigrant struggle for respectability in America and her courage and filial love.

… The Don's courage and loyalty came from her; his humanity came from her… and so, I know now, without Lucia Santa, I could not have written The Godfather."

It is her formidable will that steers them through the Great Depression and the early years of World War II.