The Good Mothers Audiobook By Alex Perry cover art

The Good Mothers

The True Story of the Women Who Took on The World's Most Powerful Mafia

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Good Mothers

By: Alex Perry
Narrated by: Eva Alexander
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $26.13

Buy for $26.13

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

You are born into it or marry in. Loyalty is absolute, bloodshed revered and you kill or go to your grave before betraying The Family. This code of omertà is how the 'Ndrangheta became the world’s most powerful mafia. The Good Mothers is the story of the women who broke the silence.

We live in their buildings, work in their companies, shop in their stores, eat in their restaurants and elect politicians they fund. Founded more than 150 years ago by shepherding families in the toe of Italy, the ’Ndrangheta is today the world’s most powerful mafia, with a crushing presence in southern Italy, a market-moving size in global finance and a reach that extends to fifty countries around the world. And yet, remarkably, few of us have ever heard of it.

The ’Ndrangheta’s power rests on a code of silence, omertà, enforced by a claustrophobic family hierarchy and murderous misogyny. Men and boys rule. Girls are married off as teenagers in arranged clan alliances. Beatings are routine. A woman who is ‘unfaithful’ – even to a dead husband – can expect her sons, brothers or father to kill her to erase the ‘family shame’.

In 2009, when abused wife Lea Garofalo ‘disappears’ after giving evidence against her mafiosi husband, prosecutor Alessandra Cerreti realises the ’Ndrangheta’s bigotry may be its great flaw. The key to bringing down this criminal empire is to free its women and allow them to speak out and testify. When Alessandra finds two collaborators inside Italy’s biggest crime families, she must persuade them to cooperate, and save themselves and their children.

The stakes could not be higher. Alessandra is fighting to save a nation. The mafiosi are fighting for their existence. The women are fighting for their lives. Not all will survive.

©2018 Alex Perry (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Italy Organized Crime Women Marriage Mafia
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

‘Perry has ably pieced together a number of remarkable stories. His focus … [in his] fast-moving book … is on the women who, sickened by years of abuse and bullying, decided that they would take no more’ Caroline Moorehead, Times Literary Supplement

‘The highly compelling story of the women who dared to break omertà, the Mafia code of silence. In fully developing his subjects, Perry shows remarkable empathy for their plights. An impossible-to-put-down page-turner’ Kirkus

‘The painful and dangerous process of these women’s rebellion against the family makes a gripping and heart-breaking narrative’ Clare Longrigg, Observer

‘Both harrowing and heartening … and told with Alex Perry's usual verve’ Tom Burgis, Financial Times

‘A brilliant read’ Devika Bhat, The Times

‘This is something special’ Nicholas Schmidle, New Yorker

‘One female prosecutor in Italy believed that she could recruit mistreated, abused, and discarded Mafia women could help bring down the organization. She was right. This story is bananas’ Lauren Katzenberg, New York Times

What listeners say about The Good Mothers

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    31
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    28
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    32
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An astonishing and courageous book

I usually listen to my books In the car only. But the content and the manner in which the book is written had me listening at every opportunity. I am familiar with the mafiosi of Sicilia, Napoli and Calabria. And the Ndrangheta is by far the most infiltrated into many countries and their daily dealings.

With the zeitgeist of #metoo, this book is timeous and captures that most eloquently.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Fascinating and horrifying all at once. Highly recommend! The narrator did a wonderful job, bringing nuances to a fascinating and compelling drama.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb narration of a stunningly well written book

This is a brilliant book beautifully written and narrated. Eva Alexander's diction and delivery in English convey the exquisite music in the Italian language. (It runs about an hour longer that the other narration.) Communities and businesses that suffered for generations due to organized crime were defeated by the mothers and daughters who dared to challenge the Calabrian mafia and by the lead prosecutor, Alessandra Cerreti, who chose not to have children because of the danger of her work. Cerreti proved that women's knowledge of these crimes could inform the courts and rally the people to break the 'Ndrangheta's hold.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!