The Family Snitch

“This is a memorable inquiry into the legacy of a father’s sins.”—Publisher’s Weekly“An introspective reflection on complicated parent-child relationships. Recommended for readers interested in family memoirs.”—Library Journal“A heart-rending documentation of the corrosive nature of shame and the limitations of truth. With surgical precision and scrupulous reportage, Fontana examines what love takes—in action, not intention—demanding a clear accounting of the past, and letting no one, herself included, off the hook.” —Nina St. Pierre, author of Love Is a Burning Thing“Unflinching yet vulnerable, The Family Snitch is the riveting investigation of an elusive father, the truth behind his time in and out of prison, and the inescapable reverberations of childhood into the present. Fontana writes about herself and the people whose lives shaped hers with deep clarity and sometimes heartbreaking frankness. This book is the best kind of memoir — one that resists easy answers, choosing instead to remind us of the impossibly complex nature of humanity.” — Vanessa A. Bee, author of Home Bound“What Francesca Fontana achieves is miraculous. She is not only an extraordinary reporter of her father’s criminal past but also of her own self—the ways she is shaped by her history and the tremendous courage it takes to break free. The Family Snitch begins as an inquiry into the possibilities, trickery, and bounds of memory, and unfolds into a devastating story of heartbreak within one family.” — Sanaë Lemoine, author of The Margot Affair“Francesca Fontana’s The Family Snitch: A Daughter’s Memoir of Truth and Lies is a sharp and absorbing investigation into a father, a mother, and a self. By mapping hard facts onto the slippery and abstract, Fontana reveals the futilities of trying to pin down a lie, of attempting to measure the emotionally-outsized proportions of a parent.” — Karleigh Frisbie Brogan, author of Holding“Superb! A relentless, true-crime memoir about a reporter investigating the hardest possible subject: her own outlaw father.” — PJ Vogt, journalist and host of Search Engine podcast“Through incredible investigative storytelling, Francesca Fontana’s The Family Snitch: A Daughter’s Memoir of Truth and Lies is a stirring examination of truth, deception, and self. Told with precision and vulnerability, Fontana’s memoir is both moving and endlessly thought-provoking about stories that shape one’s life, and how we live with them.” —Rainesford Stauffer, author of An Ordinary Age and All the Gold Stars“Fontana’s voice is clear, singular and full of sorely needed truth, and the complex personal story she weaves together in The Family Snitch is engrossing and empathetic in equal measure.”—Emma Specter, author of More, Please: On Food, Fat, Bingeing, Longing, and the Lust for “Enough”

Francesca Fontana is an award-winning reporter at the Wall Street Journal. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon’s Clark Honors College. In 2020, she received a Front Page Award from the Newswomen’s Club of New York. She lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Jiji.