The Family by Naomi Krupitsky

My friend Kate took me as her guest to a terrific event in October at the Town & Country Club in San Francisco. The event was just my cup of tea. Two women, one from Random House and the other from Penguin Books, shared with us their favorite new titles for the coming year. “The Family,” the debut novel from Naomi Krupitsky, was highlighted on the Penguin list and I couldn’t wait to read it. Set in Brooklyn and Red Hook, New York, the saga follows the lives of two young women during the 1920’s into the 1940’s. Sofia Colicchio and Antonia Russo grew up together, literally living next door to each other since birth. Their idyllic friendship is shattered when, on a joint family vacation to the shore with their parents, Antonia’s father disappears. What the girls soon figure out is that both of their fathers work for the Italian Mafia, a job in which people often go missing without explanation. The girls stay close through junior high and high school, learning more about the pros and cons of living in a Mafia family. As much as they struggle with the violence of the association, they are also attracted to the camaraderie and life-style in which they are raised. Each girl watches her own mother with an eagle eye, to see if the same fate is in her future. When Sofia and Antonia begin dating boys in high school, the ties that bind them together become even more apparent. Their dreams of marriage and motherhood are soon entangled with the family business as well. “The Family” offers a fresh look at the New York Mafia from the young woman’s perspective, and the new angle is both fascinating and haunting at the same time.  To buy this book on Amazon click here.