The House of Scorta

There's nothing like falling in love with a book and this summer I fell in love with "The House of Scorta." I devoured it over a long hot weekend, which seemed fitting given the novel's setting in the dry, hot region of Puglia in the southeast of Italy as described in the first paragraph of the book: "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." Opening in 1870, The House of Scorta chronicles five generations of the rough Mascalzone family, doomed to live under the weight of a scandulous reputation in the town that bred them yet struggle to accept them. Laurent Gaude, the book's French author whose wife is of Italian descent, paints an incredibly detailed picture of the complex social rules and interactions in southern Italian culture. Gaude captures the dark shadows, age-old rhythms and brutal realities of southern Italian life in a way I have rarely experienced in prose, except maybe for the classic "Christ Stopped at Eboli." Throughout the twists and turns of the narrative, the themes of family, community, belonging, sacrifice, judgment and redemption are weaved together. Readers will gain an appreciation of the history of Italy, which was just a new country as the novel opens, and the prejudice that has long plagued the South. Originally published in French as La Soleil des Scorta, the book has won France's highest literary prize and sold over 400,000 copies in that country. While it is a shame the novel hasn't sold better in the United States -- consider yourself in on a wonderful secret.

The House Of Scorta by Laurent Gaude is deftly narrated by the team of Daniel Oreskes and Barbara Caruso in this High Bridge audiobook presentation. The House Of Scorta is a poetic narrative of an Italian family struggle over the generations, and the story of their becoming, their faith, and their eternal pursuit of life. The 6 hour, 5 disc audiobook is very strongly recommended to all general fiction fans for the unique style in which it has been presented. Indeed, this complete and unabridged CD audiobook would prove a popular addition to any community library collection.

Laurent Gaude's prose is rhythmic, frequently poetic. At the same time it is compact, epigrammatic. He's an author who is extremely careful with words, they're well considered, and always on-point perfect to describe a scene or person. The very lack of verbosity renders his writing all the more compelling. Gaude has twice won the Concourt Prize, and once you find yourself in the spell of this story, you'll think, "Deservedly so." "The House of Scorta" spans five generations of a Southern Italian family that labored, cheated, loved, stole, and survived. The story open in 1875 with the return of Luciano Mascalzone to the sleepy village of Montepuccio. He has spent the last 15 years in prison, years in which he dreamed of Filomena Biscotti. Now, he has come to "make her his own." He knows that he will be killed for this, the townspeople will stone him. Yet he goes on until he reaches the door of the Biscotti home. Luciano's dreams of possessing Filomena seem to come true, but later as he lay dying in the street he learns that the woman who welcomed him was not Filomena but her younger sister. His visit resulted in the birth of a son, Rocco, and shortly thereafter the mother's death. Rocco is despised by the villagers, they want to put him to death. A kindly priest saves him by giving the boy to a fisherman and his wife. Upon reaching manhood he takes their name to become Rocco Scorta Mascalzone. He is a beast, attacking peasants in the fields, murdering burghers on the road, never forgetting that those in his home village would have killed him. He does not return to Montepuccio until he is a wealthy man, "When his reputation had been made and he ruled the whole region like a lord over his people." Soon thereafter he marries a deaf mute who gives him three children, Domenico, Giuseppe, and Carmela. The children are ostracized by the other youngsters in the village save for Raffaele who becomes like a brother to them. In an amazing gesture Rocco gives all of his money, including the farm on which they live to the church. Thus, his children are impoverished. "They understood that a savage will had condemned them to poverty, and that this will was their father's." The townspeople largely ignored the Scortas. "They were three hungry souls, a brigand's spawn." How they managed to survive is related in the voice of Carmela as the narrative alternates between past and present, carrying readers along in prose so richly descriptive that one can feel the heat of the sun and taste the golden goodness of olive oil. "The House of Scorta" stands alone, remarkable for its radiant prose and sensitive yet unsentimental portraits of men and women seeking a place in the world. Highly recommended. - Gail Cooke