Jean Giono

Angelo is an young Italian nobleman and soldier whose hot-headedness has forced him into a desperate exile in France. While making his way slowly back to Italy, he witnesses the intense ravages of a cholera epidemic in Provence, and his natural romanticism, heroism, and thirst for adventure take over and change the …

The Serpent of Stars (Le serpent d¢étoiles, 1993; reprinted 1999 Grasset) takes place in rural southern France in the early part of the century. The novel’s elusive narrative thread ties landscape to character to an expanse just beyond our grasp. The narrator encounters a shepherding family and glimpse by glimpse, …