The Descendant

The story of an Italian immigrant family in the Wild West whose crazy, brave, and magical women overcame impossible odds to become bootleggers, brides—and Mafia bosses.

This based-on-real-events novel tells the story of the family that possibly inspired The Godfather—except this story doesn’t begin with a small robbery in New York. Instead, The Descendant begins with a big, blooming love in the tiny town of Lucca Sicula, Sicily. Told through the lives of the strong Italian women who fought against impossible odds, this historically inspired narrative introduces a whole cast of fascinating characters.

Mariano Barbera was a strong, powerfully built man who saw tiny fourteen-year-old Maria Ragusa at her family’s store and was struck dumb. He had to have her, and she wanted him just as badly. Their life together leads the couple and their children from earthquake-ravaged Sicily to bondage in the mines of Colorado, to cattle ranching in Pueblo, to Mafia life on the mean streets of Red Hook, Brooklyn.

This sweeping family saga centers around the Barberas’ ten children from their three cowboy gangster sons, Peter, Joe, and Austin to their seven wildly different cowgirl daughters. First there’s little Flo—born on the night of the wolves and whose own alpha wolf never left her side—as she navigates life alongside her best pal and younger sister, Clara. Then there’s Flo’s many older sisters: Callie, who loved and lost; Angie, who loved and left; gorgeous Laura, who loved the wrong man; grouchy but brilliant Helen, who loved many times; and tough-as-nails wrangler Michelina, who loved a woman more than the husband she was forced to marry.

The Descendant is not just the story of how the mountain Mafia began in the United States. This is the story of a family of scrappy, tough, smart folks who refused to let all the power in the world keep them down.