The House of Scorta
by Laurent Gaude
Summary
Winner of the Goncourt Prize 2004, The House of Scorta is an epic story of love, lies and a family’s disgrace in the unforgiving south of Italy. The saga of the Scorta family is chronicled from the 1870s with what seems to be a doomed lineage with the birth of Rocco Scorta, the bastard son of a notorious scoundrel. [But] the Scortas are blessed with an imposing pride and a relentless faith in their own power. Spanning five generations, the novel is laced with infamous crimes, forsaken loves, and lifelong secrets. Over 400,000 copies have sold in Gaude’s native France.
Excerpt
The heat of the sun seemed to split the earth open. Not a breath of wind rustled the olive trees. Nothing moved. The scent of the hills had vanished. The rocks crackled with heat. August weighed down on the Gargano massif with the self-assurance of an overlord. It was impossible to believe that rain had ever fallen on these lands, that water had once irrigated the fields and quenched the olive groves. Impossible to believe that any animal or plant could have ever found sustenance under this arid sky. It was two o’clock in the afternoon and the earth was condemned to burn.
A donkey trudged along a dusty path. Resigned, it followed every curve in the road. Nothing could impede its progress. Not the burning air it breathed, not the jagged stones mangling its hooves. On it went. Its rider was like a shade condemned to an ancient torment. Dazed with heat, the man didn’t move. He left it up to his mount to lead them both to the end of that road. The animal performed its task with a blind force of will. Slowly, step by step, lacking the strength ever to quicken its pace, the donkey ate up the miles. The rider was muttering, his words evaporating in the heat. “Nothing can stop me… The sun can kill all the lizards in these hills, but I’ll hang on. I’ve been waiting too long… The earth can hiss and my hair catch fire, but I’m on my way, and I won’t stop till I’ve reached the end.”
Thus the hours went by, in a furnace that consumed all color. At last, behind a bend, the sea came into view. “Here we are, at the ends of the earth,” the man thought. “I’ve been dreaming of this moment for fifteen years.”
The sea lay motionless, like a puddle, as if its only purpose were to reflect the sun’s power. The road had not passed through any villages or intersected any other roads, but only plunged further and further into the land. The sudden appearance of that immobile sea, sparkling with heat, made it clear that the path led nowhere. Yet the donkey went on at the same slow, decisive pace, ready to plunge into the water if his master asked him to. The rider didn’t move. He felt dizzy. Perhaps he had made a mistake. There was only a maze of hills and sea, as far as the eye could see. “I took the wrong road,” he thought. “I should already be able to see the town. Unless it moved away. That must be it. It must have sensed I was coming and moved, into the sea, so that I couldn’t get to it. I’ll dive into the waves if I have to, but I won’t give in. I’ll go on till I’ve reached the end. I want my revenge.”
Excerpt from The House of Scorta by Laurent Gaude. Copyright 2005. Permission granted by MacAdam/Cage Publishing.
Reviews
"[A] bewitching novel"--San Francisco Chronicle
"Gaude proves himself capable of painting a rich canvas"--Publishers Weekly
”...reads like a dark, tragic fairy tale...even in translation, the book is filled with lovely language"--The Record Courier
Author's Biography
Laurent Gaude’s first novel, The Death of an Ancient King, was published in almost twenty countries. He has twice won the Prix Goncourt. Also an accomplished playwright, Gaude found the inspiration for The House of Scorta in his wife�s family story and his extensive travels in Italy.