Black Souls

Starred review from March 15, 2019
In the hills of Calabria, three boys (Luciano, Luigi, and our anonymous storyteller) begin a journey into organized crime that will lead them to heady power before a fitting if tragic fall. In the 1970s, marginalized from educational and job opportunities, Calabria's shepherding families develop a dark criminal partnership with the Ndrangheta Mob, hiding criminal fugitives and kidnap victims on their remote farms. Raised among Ndrangheta secrets, the three boys naturally begin plotting their own entry into the criminal world. Within a few short years, they've pulled off the robbery of a well-connected brothel owner, which seeds another ambitious venture: establishing Italy's first heroin pipeline. Fueled by the narrator's charismatic leadership, guided by Luciano's genius, and protected by Luigi and their new brother Sasa's bravery, they ride the heroin wave to unimaginable wealth, pivoting easily toward cocaine when heroin loses appeal. But, when a newly energized law-enforcement regime prompts the brothers to plan their underworld exit, they find themselves hunted by a vengeful former partner. Criaco's debut novel (published in Italy in 2008) is equally successful as gritty gangland chronicle, tribute to the bonds of brotherhood, and full-sensory ode to his beloved Calabrian mountains. Criaco's incisive social commentary and unflinching realism will appeal to fans of Scandinavian and American crime fiction, but his confidential, folkloric voice sets this story apart.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2018

Born into a family of shepherds in Italy's rugged Calabria, Criaco was a University of Bologna-degreed lawyer until he published this book to huge international clamor in 2008 (there's even a multi-award-winning film, released in 2014). In Calabria's Aspromonte Mountains, three friends--smart Luciano, cheerful Luigi, and a nameless, dark-hearted narrator--escape poverty via a life of crime. Drawing on history and mountain lore as he exposes the 'Ndrangheta, the region's pervasive Mafia, Criaco shows us that violence leads inevitably to more violence.

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