“The Ludlow massacre in Colorado in 1914 is a very compelling story of man’s inhumanity to man. It is an issue of human rights, bigotry, and how vicious people can come in stereotyping people for greed and fortune. I look forward to the publication of Linda Stasi’s book, The Descendant and her authorship as only she can dramatize man's pain, agony, and resilience.”
Description
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.
Reviews
“Told through the eyes of one family, The Descendant is the story of how thousands of Italian immigrants helped settle the American West fighting unimaginable hardship, massacre, flood, blizzards, and bigotry to emerge triumphant as cattle ranchers, cowboys, bootleggers, and heroic WWII fighter plane crew members. Written with heartbreak and humor, Stasi’s novel brings needed change to the accepted, but biased, untold Italian American immigrant narrative.”
“In The Descendant, Linda Stasi tells a story little-known and hers to tell: the wild and history-based tale of the Italian miners and ranchers in the American West. Immigration, prohibition, the birth of the mafia, and a little girl watched over by a large gray wolf—Stasi’s family was there, and I’m so glad I got to meet them in all their astonishing variety in this novel.”
I guarantee your imagination will put you there with them and, as I did, you will wonder what you would do to survive. This is a story that will resonate in your thoughts for a long time.”
