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The Good Mothers

The True Story of the Women Who Took on the World's Most Powerful Mafia

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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
"Highly compelling . . . An impossible-to-put-down page-turner revealing the Mafia makeup and three courageous women who bore witness to save others." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES
The Calabrian Mafia—known as the 'Ndrangheta—is one of the richest and most ruthless crime syndicates in the world. The 'Ndrangheta's power derives from a mix of violence and silence—omertà. Yet it endures because of family ties: you are born into the syndicate, or you marry in. Loyalty is absolute. Bloodshed is revered. You go to prison or your grave and kill your own father, brother, sister, or mother in cold blood before you betray The Family.
In 2009, after one abused 'Ndrangheta wife was murdered for turning state's evidence, prosecutor Alessandra Cerreti approached two more mafia wives, persuading them to testify in return for a new future for themselves and their children.
The Good Mothers is the riveting story of a high-stakes battle pitting a brilliant, driven woman fighting to save a nation against ruthless mafiosi. Caught in the middle are three women fighting for their children and their lives. Not all will survive.
"An essential addition to the growing library on organized crime [that] puts the women . . . at the center of a story . . . Perry keeps the emphasis on the risks taken by a brave few Calabrian women . . . Pesce [is] a character worthy of Elena Ferrante." —Washington Post
"A staggeringly impressive work of investigative reporting . . . A life changing read." —Booklist, starred review
"Wow, this is something special." —Nicholas Schmidle, The New Yorker
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    • Kirkus

      April 15, 2018
      The highly compelling story of the women who dared to break omertà, the Mafia code of silence.In fully developing his subjects, Perry (The Rift: A New Africa Breaks Free, 2015, etc.) shows remarkable empathy for their plights. The women were raised in Calabria, the home to the 'Ndrangheta, an arm of the Mafia, just like the Camorra of Naples and the Cosa Nostra of Sicily. Italy cracked down on the Sicilian Mafia in the early 1980s, outlawing any relationship, even familial. By the mid-2000s, Cosa Nostra was a shadow of itself. Then the 'Ndrangheta stepped in, took over the narcotics trade, and expanded it to a multibillion-euro business. In 2009, a prosecutor named Alessandra Cerreti was assigned to Calabria, and her tireless work uncovered the truth. In this captivating true-crime narrative, the author paints a frightening and intimate picture of women's misery under the rule of organized crime. Many were denied education, they knew their sons would end up murderers, and their daughters married early and were routinely abused. They were part of the clan, and voluntarily or not, women worked as messengers, bookkeepers, and heads of the business when their husbands were "unavailable." In the mid-1990s, 'Ndrangheta wife Lea Garofalo left her husband, taking her daughter to inform against the Mafia. She spent years in the witness protection program; unfortunately, her witness produced no arrests. Garofalo and her daughter hid for years, knowing her husband was following them. She eventually attempted reconciliation, knowing full well she would likely be murdered. Fortunately, she was not the only woman who was fed up with the misogynist tyranny and oppression of the "family." Giuseppina Pesce and Maria Concetta Cacciola were friends and were ready to talk. Both had children, and their information proved to be priceless. Desperate, their families used their children to try to get them back for the singular purpose of murdering them.An impossible-to-put-down page-turner revealing the Mafia makeup and three courageous women who bore witness to save others.

      COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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