Barbie Latza Nadeau

An engrossing look at the lives of women who are involved in the Italian Mafia and other similar criminal groups such as the Camorra and the 'Ndrangheta. As Barbie Latza Nadeau makes clear, these women—whether wives, mothers, sisters, or daughters of mafiosi—are neither so passive nor so oppressed as popular conceptions would have them be. Look at what these women are actually doing, Nadeau argues, rather than making assumptions based on what is said about them.

True, these women generally live lives shaped by deeply patriarchal and heteronormative understandings of relationships, marriage, and motherhood, and often face extreme levels of domestic abuse and intimate partner violence.

However, many of them are as much a part of these criminal groups as are their male partners and family members. They choose to remain, they often place family honour and power above the lives and safety of even their own children, and they revel in the wealth and status that comes with all of this. Many of them have reputations for cruelty and sadism that far surpass their male peers. These women increasingly take advantage of the condescending sexism of the Italian legal system to take on ever more important roles in the organized crime system right under the noses of the cops. Nadeau argues that, for instance, the comparatively greater freedom of movement for women during the stringent pandemic lockdowns in Italy—“traditionally female roles meant women still needed to leave their homes for groceries and other essentials"—has allowed women to climb even higher on these organizations' hierarchical ladders.

Nadeau writes about these women with a continual attention to the wider social contexts within which they live—Italy as a western European country which has largely been passed by by feminism; the grinding poverty of much of southern Italy—and with frequent flashes of dark humour. Recommended if you're interested in true crime, but even more so in the social structures that facilitates organized crime networks in the first place.… (meer)

The Godmother: Murder, Vengeance + Bloody Struggle of Mafia Women
by: Barbie Latza Nadeau
Penguin Books
2022
***** (5 stars)
#netgalley #TheGodmother

Thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Books and Barbie Nadeau for sending this e-book for review.

This was fantastic and engrossing, hard to put down. I have been intrigued by the mafia and have read quite a few books about it. This is definitely one of the better ones. I highly recommend this novel for fans of the Mafia, crime thrillers or anyone just looking for a good book.
We make so many assumptions about the Mafia, and what Mafia women are like, but rarely do we get to see them in their personal, day to day life, amny times overlooked and shadowed by their husbands exploits. Through massive and extensive research, done over a long period of time, and hours of interesting and revealing conversations and interviews, Nadeaus investigative reporting has given us a clear peek into what it mean to be a Mafia women, a Mafia wife and a Mafia mother. What its like growing up in a Family, marrying into the Family, and how difficult "pantiti" (leaving the mafia by becoming a turncoat) really is.
The actual role of women in the Mafia may differ from woman to woman, but most seem to become as chilling and ruthless as their Family. Exterminating your own family and killing infants who cannot even speak, and feel little remorse is just chilling. The life of Pupetta, The N'drangheta clan, and the life of these women is hard to forget. The prose is beautifully crafted and pushes this novel. The cover is perfect.
Highly recommended… (meer)

"Africa begins in Rome. The type of poverty that permeates much of Africa exists in parts of the Italian south ad well." This was a well written, heartbreaking and eye opening expose about the years of corruption in Southern Italy. For years women from Nigeria have been trafficked in Southern Italy against their knowledge. Most of these are young teens who have been sold a dream of freedom and getting out of poverty. But the trafficking ring doesn't operate alone. You have ISIS, drug trafficking, African soldiers and Italian mobsters all interconnected and working alongside each other to perpetuate the reign of corruption. The author offers insight as to how the governments are aware but remain idle in taking action to counteract the corruption, terrorism and human trafficking. I was heart broken reading about the plight of these women who are the innocent victim but it is not an isolated example. Poverty is a worldwide crisis and human trafficking intersects with all types of corruption. The author does a great job of providing the history and discussing the underlying issues that make these situations pervasive. She offers resources and background and provides suggestions for action. If you are interested in making a difference, this is the book for you.… (meer)

This is certainly an eye-opening book, and deserves full credit as an expose of the problems trafficked African women encounter upon arrival in Italy and the difficulties of extricating a very few fortunate individuals from that fate. It more or less cleaves to the scope indicated in its subtitle, "sex, drugs, and guns on the Mafia coast" with the greater part devoted to the sex trade and slavery.

A brief glance towards the recruiting process and the journey as experienced by several typical women is all we get, and that's not unreasonable from an author based in Italy. When solutions are suggested -- and it's clear that any solution short of "clean up the rampant corruption in both Italy and Nigeria" is a mere band-aid -- the author tends towards contradiction. Pamphlets about human trafficking are sometimes handed out at landing points, if the coast guard announces the landing point in advance. Why not by NGO rescue boats on the high seas? she asks. Earlier in the book, however, we've been told that most of the women are functionally illiterate and for many the ability to write their own name and recognize numbers to 20 defines the limit of their education. Again the suggestion is made several times (by experts, not by the author) that regulating the sex trade would help. Nadeau questions this politely, but in view of the horrendous scene wherein she witnesses a leashed woman forced repeatedly to engage in sex acts on a street corner -- and nothing can be done, according to a plainclothes policeman on the scene, because prostitution is legal in Italy -- it seems that legalization is doing little good and further legalization could well compound the problem.

One of the strengths of the book is Nadeau's vivid descriptions of scenes that few of her readers would ever have the chance or desire to witness. She takes us into the dark side of the Mafia coast in an unforgettable way... and oh yes, there's an exorcism as well: one of the ways in which trafficked women are constrained and controlled is by JuJu black magic and exorcism is more effective than reason in the effort to release them.

Roadmap to Hell is a wake up call, one which sadly is not likely to reach the ears of those in a position to solve the roots of the problem. But for the rest of us to be aware of the issues is, I suppose, a good and important thing.… (meer)