Colline

About “Colline”

In an NYRB Classics original, a novel set deep in Provence a century ago, four stone houses sit on a hillside surrounded by wild nature. A patchwork of fields and a mass of green threaten the village. Animals like a miming cat and a malevolent boar act with their own will. The four houses have a dozen residents, including Gagou, a mute drifter. Janet, the eldest man, is bedridden and speaks in tongues. Everything seems well until the village fountain stops running, leading to a life-and-death struggle between humans and the natural world. Fire, water, earth, and air all play a role. Jean Giono, who grew up roaming the hills of Provence, drew from oral traditions and classical literature. His first novel, Hill, won the Prix Brentano and is now revived in a poetic translation by Pauln Eprile.