An epic tale of the Provence countryside. "In Giono's work is what every sensitive, full-blooded individual ought to be able to recognize at once as `the song of the world.'...The philosophy behind this symphonic production has no name: its function is to liberate, to keep open all the sluices of the soul, to encourage speculation, adventure, and passionate worship." -Henry Miller, The Books in My Life "Peasant civilization possesses as a gift human qualities which philosophical civilizations spend centuries first defining, then desiring, and finally losing." -Jean Giono A true forebear of magical realism, Giono creates men and women rooted in the folklore of provincial France. With a poet's grace and imagination, he weaves a grand story of the earth and of passion, of animals and weather, of the miracles we now call the laws of nature.