Overview

The story of an Italian immigrant family in the Wild West whose crazy, brave, and magical women overcame impossible odds to become bootleggers, brides—and Mafia bosses. This based-on-real-events novel tells the story of the family that possibly inspired The Godfather—except this story doesn’t begin with a small robbery in New York. Instead, The Descendant begins with a big, blooming love in the tiny town of Lucca Sicula, Sicily. Told through the lives of the strong Italian women who fought against impossible odds, this historically inspired narrative introduces a whole cast of fascinating characters. Mariano Barbera was a strong, powerfully built man who saw tiny fourteen-year-old Maria Ragusa at her family’s store and was struck dumb. He had to have her, and she wanted him just as badly. Their life together leads the couple and their children from earthquake-ravaged Sicily to bondage in the mines of Colorado, to cattle ranching in Pueblo, to Mafia life on the mean streets of Red Hook, Brooklyn. This sweeping family saga centers around the Barberas’ ten children from their three cowboy gangster sons, Peter, Joe, and Austin to their seven wildly different cowgirl daughters. First there’s little Flo—born on the night of the wolves and whose own alpha wolf never left her side—as she navigates life alongside her best pal and younger sister, Clara. Then there’s Flo’s many older sisters: Callie, who loved and lost; Angie, who loved and left; gorgeous Laura, who loved the wrong man; grouchy but brilliant Helen, who loved many times; and tough-as-nails wrangler Michelina, who loved a woman more than the husband she was forced to marry. The Descendant is not just the story of how the mountain Mafia began in the United States. This is the story of a family of scrappy, tough, smart folks who refused to let all the power in the world keep them down.

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Reviews

“The Ludlow massacre in Colorado in 1914 is a very compelling story of man’s inhumanity to man. It is an issue of human rights, bigotry, and how vicious people can come in stereotyping people for greed and fortune. I look forward to the publication of Linda Stasi’s book, The Descendant and her authorship as only she can dramatize man's pain, agony, and resilience.” -- <u><B>Reverend Al Sharpton</B></u>, President of National Action Network, <I>New York Times</I> bestselling author, MSNBC host “Told through the eyes of one family, The Descendant is the story of how thousands of Italian immigrants helped settle the American West fighting unimaginable hardship, massacre, flood, blizzards, and bigotry to emerge triumphant as cattle ranchers, cowboys, bootleggers, and heroic WWII fighter plane crew members. Written with heartbreak and humor, Stasi’s novel brings needed change to the accepted, but biased, untold Italian American immigrant narrative.” -- <u><B>Andrew Cuomo</B></u>, former New York State governor, NYC mayoral candidate, <I>New York Times</I> bestselling author “In The Descendant, Linda Stasi tells a story little-known and hers to tell: the wild and history-based tale of the Italian miners and ranchers in the American West. Immigration, prohibition, the birth of the mafia, and a little girl watched over by a large gray wolf—Stasi’s family was there, and I’m so glad I got to meet them in all their astonishing variety in this novel.” -- <u><B>SJ Rozan</B></u>, author of the 2024 <I>New York Times</I> pick of best historical novels: <I>The Murder of Mr. Ma</I> bestselling author of over twenty novels I guarantee your imagination will put you there with them and, as I did, you will wonder what you would do to survive. This is a story that will resonate in your thoughts for a long time.” -- <u><B>David Fisher</B></u>, author of twenty-four <I>New York Times</I> bestselling fiction and non-fiction books “The Descendant is a compelling historical novel that is an eye opener and reminds us of the brutality that Italian immigrants and others withstood in reaching their American dream.” -- <u><B>Angelo Vivolo</B></u>, founding member Italian American Leadership Foundation, board member National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) “The Descendant is a riveting family saga that carries readers from a small Sicilian village to the mines of Colorado and the streets of Brooklyn. Inspired by real events, it reveals the resilience and daring of the Barbera family—especially the fierce women whose courage and defiance helped them survive poverty, violence, and the pull of the Mafia. Epic in scope yet intimate in its storytelling, this is a powerful portrait of love, loss, and the fight to carve out a future against impossible odds.” -- <u><B>Jacqueline Friedland</B></u>, <I>USA Today</I> bestselling author of <I>He Gets That From Me</I> and <I>Counting Backwards</I> “Vivid as folklore and true as history, The Descendant brings early twentieth-century Colorado to life through women whose strength and defiance reshape their families—and the world around them.” -- <u><B>Shelley Blanton-Stroud</B></u>, author of <I>An Unlikely Prospect</I> “It’s always been the American story: immigrants arrive, work relentlessly, endure misery, find success, and sometimes tragedy... and often both. But no one has ever told it more vividly than Linda Stasi in The Descendant, a sweeping tale that’s grand yet intimate, fantastical yet coldly realistic, and overflowing on every page with big characters, big emotions, and the kind of operatic storytelling that demands you keep turning pages. A knockout.” -- <u><B>William Martin</B></u>, <I>New York Times</I> bestselling author of <I>City of Dreams</I> and <I>December ’41</I>

Author Information

Linda Stasi is a novelist and multi-award winning journalist. Her first novel, The Sixth Station,  hit Amazon’s Top 25 and was hailed as “A helluva religious thriller,” by Nelson DeMille, while Steve Berry said, “You’ll be grabbing the pages so tight your knuckles will turn white!” Stasi’s sequel, Book of Judas, received acclaim from mega bestselling authors such as Sherrilyn Kenyon, who called it, “An innovative masterpiece!”  Stasi has appeared on talk shows and news channels such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, Good Day New York, and The View as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and many others. She now serves as a trustee of the upcoming Museum of Civil Rights and is the on-camera book critic for CUNY TV’s Book It. She holds a bachelor of fine arts from New York Institute of Technology.

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