' Happiness
- was it right to name it without knowing it? It sounded shameless in my mouth like when someone shows off about knowing a celebrity & just uses their first name saying Marcello when they really mean Mastroianni 'A young orphan boy grows up in Naples playing football roaming the city's streets & hidden places The older boys call him 'monkey' because he can climb anywhere He is alone apart from Don Gaetano the apartment caretaker who feeds him teaches him to play scopa & tells him stories about women history & the dark secrets of Naples' past Then one day the boy sees a young girl standing at a window It is an encounter that will haunt his life for years & eventually shape his destiny Lyrical & exuberant told with the simplicity of a fairy tale & the intensity of a memory The Day Before Happiness is the story of friendship a city & what makes us who we are