A family stitched together by one violent, impulsive act. As the decades-long secret begins to unravel, one
Italian American family will have to bear the consequences-and face each other-in this thrilling kitchen sink
drama, a southern Brooklyn tragic opera of the highest caliber.
William Boyle is the master of Brooklyn-set crime fiction and Saint of the Narrows Street is his magnum opus.
For fans of The Sopranos, Jonathan Lethem, and Dennis Lehane.
Gravesend, Brooklyn, 1986: Risa Franzone lives in a ground-floor apartment on Saint of the Narrows Street
with her bad-seed husband, Saverio, and their eight-month-old baby, Fabrizio. Risa is a loving mother, a faithful
wife, a saintly neighbor-but lately, her husband's slow dive into criminality and abuse has threatened her
peace, raising concerns about her and her baby's safety. On the night her younger sister, Giulia, moves in with
Risa to recover from a bad break-up, a fateful accident occurs: Risa, boiled over with anger and fear, strikes a
drunk, erratic Sav with a cast-iron pan, killing him on the spot.
The sisters are left with a choice: notify the authorities and make a case for selfdefense, or bury the man's body
and go on with their lives as best they can. In a moment of panic, in the late hours of the night, they call upon
Sav's childhood friend-the sweet, loyal Christopher "Chooch" Gardini-to help them, hoping they can trust
him to carry a secret like this.
Over the vast, dramatic expanse of the next eighteen years, life goes on in the working-class Italian neighborhood
of Gravesend as Risa, Giulia, and Chooch grapple with the choice they made that night-and each forge
a different path when the cracks of a supposedly seamless cover-up begin to reveal themselves.
Story Locale:Gravesend, Brooklyn, New York
