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    Black Souls
    Black Souls
    Black Souls
    Audiobook6 hours

    Black Souls

    Written by Gioacchino Criaco

    Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The modern Italian classic about Calabrian organized crime-now an award-winning motion picture-makes its English-language debut. In the remote Aspromonte Mountains in southern Calabria, Italy, three best friends embark on a life of crime in order to raise themselves up out of the poverty of their childhoods and the suffering of their parents. Brainy Luciano, the behind-the-scenes schemer, was orphaned as a little boy when the local mob boss had his postman father executed. Lazy, jovial Luigi has learned that there's no point in following the rules, since there is no path to riches for poor boys. And completing the triumvirate is the nameless narrator, from whose black soul comes the inspiration and energy for each new criminal project, from kidnapping to armed robbery to heroin dealing to contract killing. Set in the lush Aspromonte forest in an unnamed town inspired by the author's native Africo, the birthplace of the 'Ndrangheta, Calabria's ruthless and ubiquitous mafia, Black Souls draws on centuries of brigand lore, peasant rebellion history, mountain mythology, and colonial suffering to offer a gripping morality tale about how violence begets violence. The novel tells the cultural history of a disaffected people who have taken destructive paths into organized crime as a means of exploiting a system that has exploited them for hundreds of years.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    TranslatorHillary Gulley
    Release dateMar 5, 2019
    ISBN9781980027218
    Black Souls

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    4/5

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    • 4/5
      The remote Aspromonte Mountains in southern Calabria, Italy, is a land of abject poverty. In order to survive, most must resort to a life of crime, especially organized crime. Black Souls is the story of three best friends who at first begin to rob businesses in order to have better clothes to wear to school. Brainy Luciano, happy-go-lucky Luigi, and the nameless narrator of this tale have a taste for the life, and as time goes by, they branch out into kidnapping, contract killing, and dealing drugs.There is a lot to learn in Black Souls: local legends, the history of peasant rebellions, myths, and colonial suffering, and everything blends into a tale about how violence begets violence that's difficult to stop reading.From its pastoral beginning to its strong finish, I found this book weaving a bit of a spell over me. Yes, the background and history of Calabria were fascinating, but what pulled me in was the voice of the narrator. You wouldn't think a reader like me who has led a rather sheltered life would get pulled into a story about three men who were good at killing people and flooding Italy with drugs-- but I did. It had everything to do with that narrator's voice. His is an unflinching look at the life he and his friends led. Nothing is held back. His tone is completely matter-of-fact; nothing is glorified. There's never any posturing or "Hey, Ma, look at me!" The narrator never once says that what he did was right. In fact, throughout the book, readers will get the exact opposite feeling. Black Souls was a lot more than I expected to find, and that is a very good thing. It's the type of book that will stay with me for a long time.