The Brotherbood of the Grape

Henry Molise, a fifty-year-old writer, returns to the family home to help with the latest drama: his elderly parents want to divorce. Henry's tyrannical father, Nick, despite being weakened by age and alcoholism, can still strike fear into the hearts of his sons. His somewhat deranged mother still has the power to both comfort and confuse her boys. When Nick is offered some well-paid work to build a smokehouse in the hills, Henry, realising that this might be the last chance for them to understand each other, turns his back on thirty years of estrangement to help his dying father.
The Brotherhood of the Grape is typical of Fante's novels, brimming with love, death, violence and religion. Writing with wit and passion, Fante powerfully describes the damage family can wreak upon us all.