The Sopranos (1999) is TV gold. David Chase’s groundbreaking series follows James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, a New Jersey mob boss trying to balance a criminal empire with the chaos of his suburban family life.
What might look like yet another story about organized crime is actually a sharp and hilarious commentary on the American Dream, one that still resonates with audiences over two decades later. If you’ve been missing The Sopranos and its perfect mix of dark humor and family drama, here are 10 great novels that will remind you of the iconic show.
10
‘Son of the Mob’ (2002)
Written by Gordon Korman
Image via Image via Little
Son of the Mob is a Young Adult novel that makes the mafia feel just as hilarious as The Sopranos did, without taking away from the seriousness of it all. The novel almost gives you a glimpse into what it would have been like growing up as one of Tony Soprano’s kids. The story follows a 17-year-old Vince Luca, who just wants to be an average high-schooler, but the fact that his dad runs a powerful crime family tends to get in the way of that. Things take a turn when Vince crosses paths with Kendra Bightly and immediately falls for her. However, he soon finds out that her dad is an FBI agent determined to put his father behind bars.
Korman does a great job at subverting the mafia fiction genre with all kinds of ridiculous situations, family drama, and, of course, swoon-worthy romance. The book even features a chapter where Vince has to save his father’s informant’s life without ruining his date night. There’s no denying that the book’s dark humor is not for everyone, but anyone who loves The Sopranos will find Vince’s double life oddly similar to Tony’s as he tries to balance his two worlds. The writing is sharp and fast-paced, but beneath all the humor, you have a story about the fine line between loyalty and guilt, and the struggle of a young boy to define his own moral compass when everyone around him fails to do so.
9
‘Capo’ (1995)
Written by Peter Watson
Image via Mysterious Press / Open Road Integrated Media.
Capo is the perfect historical crime epic to read if you are missing the thrill and suspense of The Sopranos. The novel is set in Sicily in 1879 and follows Silvio Randazzo, a peasant boy who goes from being a frightened recruit to a ruthless head honcho in the Mafia. The rags-to-riches trope has the readers rooting for Silvio, even when he does everything he can to eliminate his rivals and aligns himself with a powerful gangster named Angelo Priola. The story really picks up when Silvio arrives in New Orleans in the 1880s and starts making his mark in America’s underworld.
Capo is extremely realistic and accurate in depicting this era of organized crime and traces the history of how the Mafia evolved from its Sicilian roots to what it eventually became on American soil. Don’t be fooled, though, because Peter Watson doesn’t glamorize or romanticize any of this because he wants to give his readers an immersive look into the mob’s origins. From blood oaths to codes of loyalty, betrayal, and honor, Silvio is a mirror image of Tony Soprano, and that’s what makes Capo such an intriguing read.
8
‘The Corporation: An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld’ (2018)
Written by T.J. English
Image via William Morrow
The Corporation: An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld genuinely feels like a lost season of The Sopranos, only if Tony’s men were out on the streets of Miami in the 1980s. The non-fiction book dives deep into the rise of the Cuban mob in America and traces the creation of “La Corporación,” one of the most powerful and violent criminal organizations in U.S. history. T.J. English tells the story of syndicate boss José Miguel Battle Sr., a former Havana cop turned kingpin, who is similar to Tony Soprano, just ten times more ruthless.
The way the author connects the mob’s journey to the larger global forces at play and how cocaine was flowing through Miami at the time is extremely interesting. Battle’s moral ambiguity is what makes the book so addictive because the more you read, the more you realize that he is a man who justifies his violence as loyalty and hides behind the language of honor, while his empire is built on blood and betrayal. The Corporation is by no means an easy read. However, it is a real look into the world of politics and organized crime, and how they constantly overlap.
7
‘American Pastoral’ (1997)
Written by Philip Roth
Image via Vintage Books
American Pastoral is Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning exploration of the American Dream and its cost. The story follows Seymour “Swede” Levov, a handsome, athletic marine who is married to a beautiful woman and set to inherit his father’s glove factory in Newark. Life seems perfect for Swede until his teenage daughter Merry becomes radicalized during the turbulence of the 1960s and plants a bomb in protest of the Vietnam War, with the explosion killing a bystander.
Everything comes crashing down for the character as he tries to deal with the aftermath of his daughter’s act of political violence. After Merry goes into hiding, Swede becomes obsessed with finding and understanding her, but Roth uses this to tear down the very idea of the American Dream and everything it promises. The book will hit close to home for fans of The Sopranos because of how it weaves family and history together.
6
‘I Hadn’t Understood’ (2007)
Written by Diego De Silva and Translated by Antony Shugaar
Image via Europa Editions
I Hadn’t Understood turns the mafia genre on its head and tells the story of Vincenzo Malinconico, a Neapolitan lawyer with no clients and no clue about where his career was going. Then, out of nowhere, his life takes a turn when he has to defend a small-time Camorra gangster known as Mimmo the Burzone. However, as the lawyer prepares to handle his first real case in a long time, he falls for Alessandra Persiano, the most beautiful attorney in the entire Naples courthouse. Soon enough, Vincenzo finds himself juggling the Mafia, a failed marriage, fatherhood, and romance all at once.
De Silva’s writing style is hilarious, and Vincenzo narrates the plot through a constant stream of thought that really reflects how messy the lawyer’s life is. Some might find his random ramblings annoying, but they slowly help you realize that Vincenzo is just another man searching for some kind of meaning. The lawyer stumbles through courtrooms and is exposed to dangerous mob politics, which initially freak him out. However, through the course of the story, he learns to accept his work for what it is and acknowledge that one can never have life all figured out. I Hadn’t Understood is hilarious and heartwarming at the same time, but its story still hits the same bittersweet notes that The Sopranos is known and loved for.
5
‘The House of Wolves’ (2023)
Written by James Patterson
Image via Grand Central Publishing
One of the most fascinating aspects of The Sopranos was the show’s depiction of a family empire and the countless things that can go wrong when one mixes business with blood ties. That is exactly the kind of drama James Patterson taps into in The House of Wolves. The only difference is that the book trades the New Jersey mob for a sports and media dynasty in San Francisco. The novel starts with billionaire Joe Wolf, owner of the San Francisco Wolves NFL franchise and the San Francisco Tribune, being found dead under suspicious circumstances.
To everyone’s surprise, though, Joe leaves everything to his daughter, Jenny, who has always been the family outcast, and his three sons are obviously not on board with that. That leads to a messy succession war amongst the heirs while detective Ben Cantor tries to find out who really killed Joe. The House of Wolves is a fast-paced story about betrayals, boardroom power plays, and sports politics. It might not be the most realistic novel out there, but that is part of the charm. Patterson writes an addictive narrative that is completely self-aware about what it is: a story about terrible people being terrible to each other.
4
‘All This Could Be Yours’ (2019)
Written by Jami Attenberg
Image via Amazon
Imagine if Tony Soprano died and his family was left to deal with all his crimes, buried secrets, and lies. That is the story Jami Attenberg attempts to tell in All This Could Be Yours. The novel follows Victor Tuchman, a violent, manipulative real estate mogul who has built his empire on corruption. As Tuchman lies dying in a New Orleans hospital, his family gathers around him to make sense of the life he has lived. His daughter, Alex, wants her father to be honest, while his wife, Barbra, refuses to talk about anything, and his son, Gary, has gone into a state of self-delusion.
It’s the perfect setup for a complicated family drama, where everyone has their own reasons to be mad at Victor. The narrative shifts between all these perspectives, which might feel complicated at first, but it works really well to show how death affects people in different ways. All This Could Be Yours is not about gangsters or mob violence, but the way it deals with themes of power, fear, and the inheritance of damage will remind anyone of The Sopranos.
3
‘The Family Hightower’ (2014)
Written by Brian Francis Slattery
Image via Seven Stories Press
The Family Hightower is a compelling tale about how crime, capitalism, and family history can overlap in horrific ways across several generations. If you’re looking for a story filled with betrayal and disaster, Brian Francis Slattery’s masterpiece has to be your next read. The story begins in 1968 when two cousins are born, and both are named after their grandfather, Peter Henry Hightower, a bootlegger who built his fortune through violence and illegal means. Now, one of the cousins, Peter, grows up in Africa and becomes a journalist. The other, Petey, lives in Ohio and gets involved in the world of organized crime. Things take a turn when Petey crosses the wrong people, and his enemies come for the wrong Peter.
This sets off a chase where the cousins uncover a century’s worth of family secrets. The novel jumps between continents and generations to trace how the Hightower family built their wealth and the consequences of their ambition. Slattery’s writing style is brutal and weirdly poetic at the same time, and the way his narrator speaks directly to the reader makes this tale all the more captivating. The Family Hightower isn’t a story about happy endings and perfect families, but that complexity makes it the perfect read.
2
‘The Power of the Dog’ (2005)
Written by Don Winslow
Image via Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
The Power of the Dog is an epic spanning three decades and explores themes similar to The Sopranos, but on a much bigger scale. The story follows Art Keller, a DEA agent who is obsessed with taking down Adán Barrera, the heir to a powerful Mexican drug cartel. However, what begins as a professional mission turns into a personal rivalry where Keller’s loyalty, faith, and morality are tested in a world filled with corruption. That’s not all, though, because the novel also features some of the most memorable side characters you will ever read about, including the teenage sex worker Nora and the Irish hitman Sean Callan.
Don Winslow weaves history and fiction together in a fascinating way to show that in the war on drugs, no one ever really wins. There’s no denying that the scope and intricacy of the novel’s plot are grand, but even then, the writing never feels contrived or dull. The story even has little moments of happiness and comedic relief to help the reader absorb all the horrors that unfold in the background. The Power of the Dog is crime fiction at its best, and the more you read, the more monstrous the narrative becomes. The book was followed by The Cartel (2015) and The Border (2019), which continue Keller’s pursuit of Barrera, and both sequels do absolute justice to the original.
1
‘The Godfather’ (1969)
Written by Mario Puzo
Image via Penguin Random House
Mario Puzo’s The Godfather is the story that redefined American crime fiction and completely reshaped how the world saw the Mafia. Sure, The Godfather books have been adapted to an extremely successful film franchise, but nothing can compare to the brilliance of the source material. The novel follows Don Vito Corleone, an Italian immigrant who rises from the slums of New York to become one of the most powerful Mafia dons in the Big Apple. The story begins at the end of World War II, when Vito is already an established mob boss. However, when rivals try to push him into the narcotics trade, everything starts coming undone.
Things take a turn when someone attempts to murder Vito, which pushes his youngest son, Michael, to take control and seek revenge for the attack on his father. Puzo focuses on keeping things sharp and clean with his writing. The author perfectly captures the corrupting nature of power in seemingly ordinary instances, such as a family dinner. The Godfather’s power lies in how it treats murder and betrayal as parts of everyday life. However, the heart of the story isn’t its portrayal of the Mafia, but Michael’s slow transformation from a war hero who wanted nothing to do with his father’s world into a cold, calculating Don.
The Sopranos
Release Date
1999 – 2007
Network
HBO
Showrunner
David Chase
Directors
Tim Van Patten, John Patterson, Alan Taylor, Jack Bender, Steve Buscemi, Daniel Attias, David Chase, Andy Wolk, Danny Leiner, David Nutter, James Hayman, Lee Tamahori, Lorraine Senna, Matthew Penn, Mike Figgis, Nick Gomez, Peter Bogdanovich, Phil Abraham, Rodrigo García
