The Brotherhood of the Grape

John Fante's novel follows Henry Molise, a successful writer of fifty, who goes back to the family home because his elderly parents want to divorce. His father, Nick, is a domineering heavy drinker whom age has weakened but who can still frighten his sons, while his mother, ill and devoutly Catholic, both comforts and confuses her children. Nick has been offered a well-paid job building a smokehouse in the hills, and Henry agrees to help, sensing it may be their last chance to set things right between them. Like much of Fante's fiction, the story draws on his own life, and it pairs a sad Italian-American family drama with comedy.

Ryan Holiday included it in his Best Book Recommendations of 2011.