The Scorta's Sun - Goncourt Prize 2004, Laurent Gaudé

The origin of their lineage condemns the Scortas to ignominy. In Montepuccio, their small village in Southern Italy, they live in poverty, and will not die rich. But they have vowed to pass down, from generation to generation, the little that life would leave them as a legacy. And apart from the modest family tobacconist, created with what they call "New York money," their wealth is as immaterial as an experience, a memory, a piece of wisdom, a spark of joy. Or even a secret. Like the one old Carmela entrusts to the priest of Montepuccio, for fear that words will soon fail her. A radiant, deeply humanist novel, Laurent Gaudé's book depicts, from 1870 to the present day, the existence of this family from Puglia, to which each generation, each individual, tries to bring, according to their own destiny, the pride of being a Scorta, and the revelation of happiness.