La Razza

“La Razza” by definition means the Race. Some Italians translate it slightly different. They interrupt the word: as an inherent trait, “like father like son”. They think of it as bad blood or good blood being passed on through the generations.

This book is mainly about twin brothers who were born into the Falici family, an Italian Mafia family from the small mountain village of Acri, Italy. The story begins with shots ringing out just before dawn at the Falici estate. Dino Falici a wealthy land owner, Don of a large family and head of the commission is murdered in his bed as he slept next to his wife Maria.

It was at that very second that his oldest son Antonio inherited his father’s position. He and his younger brother Mario are left with the problem of avenging their father’s death. Before searching out the assassins, Antonio puts his mother and eight year old twin brothers on a ship to America and out of harms way. On the very same day his two teenage sisters leave for Ireland where they will go to a convent to study, later to return to Vatican City hospital to work as nurses.

The story will take the reader through the Prohibition and World War II and the struggles the Falici family faced to hold on to their inheritance and keep their family intact.

We are talking about the “ROARING TWENTIES” in New York City and Chicago. The caldrons of Crime were boiling over. Corruption was on an upward climb. Newer and more lucrative businesses had opened up and the sky was the limit. Bootlegging had enhanced gambling and prostitution. They had become a perfect partnership. Gambling and prostitution came off the open streets into the saloons and drinking establishments. Times were difficult! Money and jobs were scarce.

The story shows how two twin brothers reacted totally different when confronted with the very same environment. They take two separate paths. Peter the older of the two by five minutes steps into his older brother shoes and takes over the family business and Paul his twin goes on to the priesthood. The author takes the reader down and unlikely path with an unusual ending.