Collina

Surprisingly fewer steps removed from, say, Algernon Blackwood, than one might expect.

Giono made a point to title this work ‘Hill’, as opposed to ‘The Hill’. By removing the article, Giono is suggesting what just about every reader will come to find for themselves; that said Hill is our protagonist in this slim novel. It starts off a little strange, and never really stops being stran Leggi tutto

Jean Giono 's Hill is the tale of several Provencal peasants living in an isolated hillside community facing the ravages of a nature gone mad. Their patriarch, the half-paralyzed Janet frightens them with tales of their folly in the face of nature: Earth isn't made for you alone to keep on using the w Leggi tutto

un récit captivant et haletant qui ne fait pas oublier, malgré tout, la pénibilité de ce style cru, parfois proche de la didascalie, qui rend la lecture laborieuse et souligne la répétition soporifique des gestes de l’homme qui, contre la nature, ne possède que quelques outils. c’est un beau texte s Leggi tutto

I received an ARC from NYRB Classics. Four families live quiet and simple lives at the foot of a hill in Provence in the early twentieth century. Their small community consists of four white houses and a small shack for an old bachelor that also lives among these peasants. Their days consist of worki Leggi tutto

Greta Thunberg would have loved this book. It's a cautionary tale about humanity's exploitation of nature. We harm it, it shows us who is really the boss but we never learn. "Hill" is a spectacle of nature anthropomorphism, and is one of the best of it's kind. It might be too poetic or unusual for s Leggi tutto

De boosaardigheid van de heuvels Les Bastides Blanche; een bijna verlaten hameau, ver van de bewoonde wereld, in de Provençaalse heuvels met vier huizen, bewoond door een dertiental inwoners. Ze verdienen er hun brood met hun boerenbedoening, vertellen elkaar verhalen en laten de absint en wijn rijke Leggi tutto