The Family: A Read with Jenna Pick

By: Naomi Krupitsky

Narrated by: Marin Ireland

The Instant New York Times bestseller
A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

A captivating debut novel about the tangled fates of two best friends and daughters of the Italian mafia, and a coming-of-age story of twentieth-century Brooklyn itself.

Two daughters. Two families. One inescapable fate.

Sofia Colicchio is a free spirit, loud and untamed. Antonia Russo is thoughtful, ever observing the world around her. Best friends since birth, they live in the shadow of their fathers’ unspoken community: the Family. Sunday dinners gather them each week to feast, discuss business, and renew the intoxicating bond borne of blood and love.

But the disappearance of Antonia’s father drives a whisper-thin wedge between the girls as they grow into women, wives, mothers, and leaders. Their hearts expand in tandem with Red Hook and Brooklyn around them, as they push against the boundaries of society’s expectations and fight to preserve their complex but life-sustaining friendship. One fateful night their loyalty to each other and the Family will be tested. Only one of them can pull the trigger before it’s too late.

Italian Mafia and Brooklyn in the 1920s

3 stars for this historical fiction that takes place in Brooklyn, NY, in the 1920s and is about two little girls who grow up next door to each other and are more like sisters than friends. I loved the sense of place and time and felt like the author did a fantastic job of transporting the reader to the Sunday dinner table eating homemade pasta in this middleclass Catholic Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn. You can read the synopsis on the cover of the book, so I won't retell that. But the book really tells the story about the relationship between the girls as they grow up in the "Family" (Italian mafia) and how their paths diverge and then come together again. It was good. I think I wanted a little something more from the character development as some of the themes (mafia hits, murdered fathers, coming of age in the 20s, and postpartum depression) were pretty heavy. I would recommend it, but the historical aspects outweigh the fiction in this one.

Superb!

Absolutely phenomenal! This book weaves the most beautiful love/adventure story of family and life and relationships. I put this into my top 10 favorite books.

Great story.

Family endures the unthinkable. Friendships are held for life. Post Brooklyn and red hook. I truly enjoyed this read.

A story of family loyalty and the cost of that loyalty.

The description of the families involved in this story makes you feel as if you were part of that family.

sequel please!!

love the evolving relationships in this book. I need an epilogue or a sequel or something though!