The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Krupitsky, Naomi. The Family. Putnam, 2021.

The novel is broken up into five books and follows best friends Sofia Colicchio and Antonia Russo from elementary age through marriage and childrearing, years 1928 to 1948. Book 1 takes place from 1928-1937, during which time Sofia and Antonia grow from age five to age thirteen. Antonia and Sofia attend school together in the primarily Italian-Irish neighborhood of Red Hook, in Brooklyn, and find it difficult to make friends with other students. This is because the girls’ fathers work for Italian mob boss Tommy Fianzo, and the other children are scared to associate with them. In this way, the girls grow up isolated as a result of the mob Family. When Antonia’s father Carlo decides that he wants to leave the Family and take his family west, skimming money off the top of Family expenses to save up, Tommy Fianzo has Carlo murdered, sending his wife Lina into a tailspin of grief that has her cut herself off from the Family. Tommy Fianzo sets up Sofia’s father, Joey Colicchio, with an independent business in Brooklyn that gives a percentage of its earnings to the Fianzo Family.

Book 2 tracks the years from 1937-1941. Antonia and Sofia grow apart during high school, Sofia focusing on social relationships and Antonia spending the majority of her time reading. World War II breaks out, with the country of Italy joining the Axis side. Antonia falls in love with Paola Luigio, a Family man, despite the fact that her mother Lina has forbid her from associating with Family men due to her bitterness at her husband’s murder. Sofia, meanwhile, falls in love with Saul Grossman, a German Jewish refugee from the Nazi regime whom Joey hires as an assistant. Sofia and Antonia become closer due to the shared experiences of the war and falling in love, and Sofia gives Antonia the courage to tell Lina about Paolo. Lina, who has begun assuming the role of the neighborhood maga, or witch, accepts this.

Book 3 follows the two years from 1941 to 1942, the period immediately following Sofia and Antonia’s graduation from high school. Sofia begins dating Saul in secret and becomes pregnant by him, something strictly prohibited within the Family because Saul is Jewish. Antonia helps give Sofia the courage to tell her parents, and Joey responds by sparing Saul’s life but forcing him to convert to Catholicism so that he and Sofia can be married. Antonia and Paolo get married, and Antonia soon becomes pregnant. Going through pregnancy together further strengthens the bond between Sofia and Antonia, mirroring the way that their mothers were best friends and pregnant at the same time. Saul becomes further integrated into the Family business, Joey seeing him as a pawn in the power struggle between the Colicchio Family and the Jewish mob led by Eli Leibovich.

In Book 4, tracking 1942-1947, Sofia gives birth to a daughter and Antonia, three months later, gives birth to a son. Sofia reacts positively to becoming a mother, feeling a sense of empowerment, whereas Antonia falls into a deep depression. Sofia supports her through the months of her struggle and feels a tremendous, almost overwhelming sense of relief when Antonia’s positive affect returns. Subsequently, feeling a sense of dissatisfaction with her life, Sofia advocates to her father until Joey gives her a job in the Family business as a middleman. Her role primarily entails communicating with and giving attention to various Family employees and contacts in order to make them feel seen, valued, and appreciated, so that they will retain their loyalty to the Family. Sofia’s job makes her feel fulfilled and empowered, but simultaneously makes Antonia feel dissatisfied with her lot and makes Saul feel like he will never be able to extricate himself from the Family. The acts of violence that Saul is forced to perform make him feel tremendously guilty, especially as his own mother has likely been killed by the Nazis and he hates the idea of war. When the Jewish mobster Eli Leibovich approaches Saul with a job offer, to be paid for spying on the Fianzo family, Saul accepts, seeing Eli as a connection to his lost culture and seeing the job as a way of making enough money to leave the Family, much the same way as Carlo tried to do a generation before.

Book 5, covering 1947-1948, begins with Joey offering Saul a promotion to second-in-command, not knowing that Saul has recently betrayed the Family by starting to work for Eli Leibovich. As Saul is Jewish, the job offer outrages Antonia’s husband Paolo, who has been loyally working a dead-end job for the Family ever since the end of the war. At the same time as Joey lets Saul take over the monthly meeting with the Fianzo Family, Tommy Fianzo lets his son Tommy Jr. take over the same meeting. At one such meeting between Saul and Tommy Fianzo Jr., a slip of paper falls out of Saul’s pocket which reveals that he has been spying on the Fianzo family. Tommy Fianzo offers Paolo a job in exchange for murdering Saul. Paolo beats up Saul, who advises Paolo to kill him, but Paolo cannot go through with the murder. Sofia, meanwhile, sets up a meeting with Tommy Fianzo Jr., trying to negotiate for Saul’s life, but Saul barges in and ruins the negotiation. Antonia and Paolo go to Lina for advice, and she tells them to make sure that the same thing does not happen to Saul that happened to her husband Carlo. Antonia takes Sofia’s gun and she and Paolo infiltrate the meeting between Sofia, Saul, and Tommy Fianzo Jr. Antonia shoots and kills Tommy Fianzo Jr., saving Saul’s life and in a way avenging her father’s death, while at the same time ensuring that none of the four of them will ever be able to leave the protection of the Family.