Lisa Novick Goldberg's Memoir Sheds Light On Recovering From Growing Up In The Shadow Of The Mafia

Imagine having to testify before a grand jury for a Mafia-related murder.

Now imagine having to testify about your own father's ties to the Mob.

Lisa Novick Goldberg recalls her harrowing experience doing just that in her memoir, The Apple and the Shady Tree: The Mafia, My Family and Me-which opens with a Mafia murder.

Using riveting chronological vignettes from her own life-some horrifying, some hilarious, thanks to her sharp wit-Goldberg takes readers into the corrupt, chaotic and sometimes glamorous world of organized crime and reveals how the Mafia, who were her father's closest friends and business associates, wreaked havoc on her family as a child and her mental health as an adult.

In The Apple and the Shady Tree, Goldberg invites readers on her intense journey to examine the terror, confusion, anxiety and depression that came with a lifetime of negotiating her identities as both a privileged Jewish girl and a quasi-Mafia princess in addition to her struggles with co-dependent and toxic relationships with her parents, especially her father.

Goldberg introduces us to her father, Herbert Novick, born into a poor Jewish family in 1928 in the rough-and-tough Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, made infamous as the home of Murder Inc. A job as teenager on the Brooklyn dockyards changed his fate when he met the men who became his lifelong friends-the men who then went on to become the capos of the powerful Genovese family. It was then that Herbie Novick morphed into "John" or "Johnny" or "Big John Novick."

Her stunning but deeply troubled mother was a formidable match in their explosive 53-year marriage. Their genetic shortcomings and poor choices created a chaotic home for Goldberg and her sister, the latter of whom could never overcome the abuse of being used as a pawn in their parents' battles.

"Writing opened up a floodgate of emotions for me," Goldberg recalls, adding that she began dreaming about her family and her upbringing in New York City. "I had terrifying dreams about the FBI's investigation into my father's role in the Genovese crime family, which was an extremely traumatic time in my life."

The Apple and the Shady Tree is available for sale now on Amazon. You can learn more about Lisa Novick Goldberg at her website.

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