The Godmothers

April 26, 2021
Aubray (Cooking for Picasso) delivers an addictive and tense multigenerational feminist romp through WWII-era New York City, where a quartet of Italian sisters-in-law run a crime family. In 1980, 30-something narrator Nicole, whose precise placement in “the Godmothers’” family tree is only revealed in the final act, delves into whether her family has any secrets while her husband prepares to take a job in the Carter administration. This prompts the telling of “the whole story,” taking the reader back to 1930s Italy and New York City, as chapters alternate between each of the godmothers of Nicole and her cousins. There’s stylish, Barnard-educated Petrina; nurse Lucy; unstable Amie; and Filomena, who flees Naples under a false name in 1943. After the women marry into the crime family, their husbands go off to war and they take charge. In the ensuing decades, the family battles a rival crime organization, losing some members to murder, and one of the godmothers gets pregnant with another’s husband’s baby. The enormous cast and multiple complicated subplots are smoothly handled, with the tensions between the godmothers easily propelling the narrative. This credibly flips the script on male-dominated Mafia stories. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writer’s House.

June 1, 2021

Three very different women marry into an Italian American family with an abundance of secrets and ties to organized crime in Aubray's second novel (after Cooking for Picasso). As Filomena, Lucy, and Amie get to know their spouses and Petrina, the fiery daughter of the family, they also become increasingly implicated in the family's business, which repeatedly brings them into close contact with notorious gangsters. When war and other complications force their men to be elsewhere, the women must step up to protect the family's interests. Aubray follows her characters from the 1930s to the 1950s, as scandals, betrayals, and revealed secrets repeatedly rock their friendships. The book's suspenseful climax unfortunately doesn't involve all four of the main protagonists, but it does incorporate a real-life Mafia summit to thrilling effect. VERDICT Keeping track of the large multigenerational cast of characters can be confusing at times, but readers who enjoy immersing themselves in family drama and watching women's friendships grow and change over time will be pleased. Recommended for readers who like feminist family sagas with a criminal twist.--Mara Bandy Fass, Champaign P.L., IL

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2021
When Nicole's husband needs a background check to secure a job in Jimmy Carter's administration, she asks her godmother if there are any family secrets to worry about. It's a question she may regret asking. Setting her tale mostly in the 1930s and '40s, Aubray uses the dramatic changes in America to highlight the family drama--a saga reminiscent of Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola. Unlike them, though, Aubray focuses on the challenges particular to women, including their parents' preference for sons, the dangers of extramarital sex, and the difficulties of assuming power in a patriarchal world, particularly the Mafia-ruled world of mid-20th-century New York. At times, Aubray lapses into exposition and clich�, yet the narrative moves fast and furious. Nicole and her cousins actually have four godmothers, four sisters-in-law who each have colorful stories that might give the FBI pause. Filomena has lived under an assumed name since she arrived in New York at age 17 to marry Mario, the youngest brother in the family. Hers is a story of escaping World War II Italy after her cousin dies in her arms. Mario's older brothers, Frankie and Johnny, marry Lucy (a nurse and single mother who must conceal her son's biological parentage) and Amie (a shy woman who must violently escape her first husband's daily assaults), respectively. All three wives carefully honor Gianni and Tessa, the patriarch and matriarch of the family--a family that deftly manipulates crime lords. Petrina, their only daughter, longs to escape the dynasty by marrying into a WASPy family. As violence erupts, power shifts, and war rises once again, the four women learn to negotiate power on their own terms. A fast-paced, drama-filled portrait of a family dynasty.

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May 15, 2021
Nicole's husband is applying for a new job with the government that requires background checks on their friends and family. Feeling that there is something hidden in her family's past, Nicole goes to her godmother Filomena to ask about anything that might prove detrimental. Filomena obliges, divulging a generational family saga rich with secrets, romance, and suspense. Filomena, Amie, Lucy, and Petrina are all members of the same affluent Italian family. In-laws to each other, they name each other as godmothers to their children. Their family is intricately linked within the community and the local crime bosses in Greenwich Village. Circumstances dealing with death and World War II have the husbands spread across the world while the women are left at home. Linked by the family and deep secrets of their pasts, the women handle the family business and its attempts to cut their ties with the mob. Aubray portrays her strong characters as intelligent, brave, and even ruthless women. This is historical fiction at it best, bringing along thrilling scenes, passionate love affairs, and a bounty of secrets.

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