Before the legend. Before Chicago. Before the name became history. Alphonse Capone is just a kid from Brooklyn. In the crowded immigrant neighborhoods of early twentieth-century New York, loyalty means everything. Family comes first. Respect is earned the hard way. And every street corner teaches a lesson about power, pride, and survival. Fourteen-year-old Al already understands more than most boys his age. He watches people carefully. He reads the angles in every room. And he knows the difference between the world people pretend exists and the one that actually runs the streets. But knowing the rules doesn’t make growing up any easier. As friendships deepen, rivalries sharpen, and the future begins closing in around him, Al finds himself standing at the edge of choices that will shape the rest of his life. Some are small. Some are dangerous. All of them matter. And somewhere beyond Brooklyn waits a city called Chicago. Just… Call Me Al is a gripping historical coming-of-age novella that explores the formative years of one of America’s most infamous figures. Through vivid detail and intimate first-person storytelling, the novel reveals the boy behind the legend—the friendships, heartbreaks, loyalties, and hard lessons that shaped the man history remembers as Al Capone. This origin story launches the Capone Diaries series, which follows Capone through the defining stages of his life—from Brooklyn street kid to the powerful and controversial figure who would dominate Chicago during the Prohibition era. History remembers the gangster. This story begins with the boy.