A book by respected French author Laurent Gaude has been translated into English. It is The Death of King Tsongor, which won the prestigious Goncourt Prize. The short (130-page) novel explores big themes in a small structure. Gaude succeeds in communicating a message that has resonated through the ages.
King Tsongor has established a vast and impressive empire the usual way, through conqest and subjugation of other peoples. In his old age, he decides to expand his empire even farther by marrying his only daughter to an emir from another dominion. But, on the eve of the wedding, an unexpected complication arises. The princess, Samilia, promised herself to her childhood sweetheart. That man has reappeared and is demanding that she wed him, not the suitor her father has accepted for her. The king is weary of war. Rather than be part of the clash between Kouame, the chosen groom, and Sango Kerim, the returned beau, he takes his own life that night. However, Tsongor still has two goals he wants achieved. He orders his youngest son, Souba, to build seven tombs at various sites in the empire and choose one for his entombment. Tsongor tells his faithful retainer, Katabalonga, to withhold the coin he will need to pay the boatman to cross into the land of the dead until the tombs have been constructed.
So, the king's body decays as his still alive spirit observes the destruction of his legacy. The two suitors, too proud to cede Samilia's hand to each other or to leave her single, as her father requested, wage years, perhaps decades, of war. But, their power is to destroy each other's forces and the capitol city of Massaba, not to prevail. Three of the king's sons become part of the war, on opposing sides. Meanwhile, Souba travels the land building tombs and learning what it means to be a Tsongor.
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