The Instant New York Times bestseller A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club PickA 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.
Checks off a couple of appealing boxes for me: historical fiction, takes place in Brooklyn, friendship, family, and organized crime. But you also get love, regret, disillusionment, anger and pain. It's a killer combo that is only made better by Naomi's brilliant writing. The way she develops the two main characters and their complex and ever-evolving but enduring friendship is nothing short of masterful. While not action packed, and even at times a little slow, it is a deep (sometimes dark) character-driven novel.
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