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The electrifying, untold story of the women born into the most deadly and obscenely wealthy of the Italian mafias - and how they risked everything to bring it down.The Calabrian Mafia - known as the 'Ndrangheta - is one of the richest and most ruthless crime syndicates in the world, with branches stretching from America to Australia. It controls seventy percent of the cocaine and heroin supply in Europe, manages billion-dollar extortion rackets, brokers illegal arms deals - supplying weapons to criminals and terrorists - and plunders the treasuries of both Italy and the European Union.The 'Ndrangheta's power derives from a macho mix of violence and silence - omert. Yet it endures because of family ties: you are born into the syndicate, or you marry in. Loyalty is absolute. Bloodshed is revered. You go to prison or your grave and kill your own father, brother, sister, or mother in cold blood before you betray The Family. Accompanying the 'Ndrangheta's reverence for tradition and history is a violent misogyny among its men. Women are viewed as chattel, bargaining chips for building and maintaining clan alliances and beatings - and worse - are routine.In 2009, after one abused 'Ndrangheta wife was murdered for turning state's evidence, prosecutor Alessandra Cerreti considered a tantalizing possibility: that the 'Ndrangheta's sexism might be its greatest flaw - and her most effective weapon. Approaching two more mafia wives, Alessandra persuaded them to testify in return for a new future for themselves and their children.A feminist saga of true crime and justice, The Good Mothers is the riveting story of a high-stakes battle pitting a brilliant, driven woman fighting to save a nation against ruthless mafiosi fighting for their existence. Caught in the middle are three women fighting for their children and their lives. Not all will survive.



About the Author

Alex Perry

Alex Perry is TIME's Africa Bureau Chief, based in Cape Town, covering 49 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. From 2002 to 2006, he was South Asia bureau chief, based in New Delhi, covering Afghanistan to Bangladesh. He joined TIME as a staff writer and travel editor in Hong Kong in February 2001.Perry has covered the Afghan and Iraq wars and conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kashmir, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan (Darfur, Kordofan and South Sudan), Uganda and Zimbabwe. He has reported on terrorism and terror attacks in Asia and Africa, the 2004 South Asian tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and a volcano in Montserrat. He has interviewed leaders as diverse as the Dalai Lama, Sonia Gandhi, Desmond Tutu and Bill Clinton, as well as presidents, prime ministers, rebel leaders, crime lords, pirates and Bollywood superstars. In 2002, the Indian government tried to deport him when he questioned the state of the Prime Minister's health and in 2007, while attempting to cover Zimbabwe's implosion, Perry was held in jail there for five days before being convicted of being a "determined and resourceful journalist" and fined 2 cents. In late 2008, his first book - Falling Off The Edge: Globalization, World Peace and Other Lies (Bloomsbury USA; Macmillan UK) - was published. The book drew on his wide experience to argue that far from being a global panacea for peace and prosperity, globalization was at the root of much modern conflict. His second book, Lifeblood: How to Change the World, One Dead Mosquito at a Time (Public Affairs US; Hurst UK; Picador Africa) follows the remarkable global campaign to wipe malaria off the planet, arguing its innovations have much to teach the world of aid and business.TIME cover stories have included Afghanistan, Iraq, the Asian tsunami, the Kashmir quake, several (including a special issue) on India, Nepal, West Africa's oil, hunger in Ethiopia, South Africa's 2009 elections, South Africa's 2010 World Cup, malaria, Zimbabwe (two), the illegal Africa-to-Asia trade in rhino horn, Asia's child slave trade, and Bangladesh's emergence from terror and poverty. For his cover story on the al Qaeda prison uprising outside Mazar-i-Sharif in November 2001, Perry won three awards: the inaugural Joseph L. Galloway War Correspondents Award, presented by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the Society of Publishers in Asia award for Excellence in Reporting and a Special Citation for Reporting in the Henry Luce Awards. "Inside the Battle at Qala-i-Jangi" was also published in the "Best of American Magazine Journalism 2002," an anthology by the American Society of Magazine Editors. In 2004, Perry was runner up in the South Asia Journalism Association's Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Story, for a September 2003 article on the civil war in Nepal. In 2005 and 2006, a TIME special issue on the tsunami, for



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