"There is still dew on this world of Giono's; he looks out on it and records his impressions of it almost as if he were the first man seeing it. The emotions of his people are refreshingly forthright and uncomplicated, and in his pages man stands in his natural revelation to the animate and inanimate world about him" New York TimesOf Sailor's twins sons, the elder is dead and the younger is missing. A simple woodsman, Sailor resolves to find the boy, fearing the worst. Soon after he and his friend Antonio set off, they stumble across a blind girl giving birth. This strange circumstance proves typical of their journey into the heart of the forest. Sailor and Antonio discover that, though the lost Twin is alive, he is the target of a manhunt. As Sailor and Antonio attempt to rescue Twin, the adventures unravel at a breathtaking speed. The next tightens around the three men until one of them is trapped and killed.

And only then does the real action of this remarkable picaresque novel begin. In Giono's universe, no murder shall go unavenged. This tale of primitive love and vendetta is cast in a timeless landscape of river, mountain and forest. With its taunt, fast-paced story and pastoral setting, The Song of the World is another triumph from the celebrated author of The Man who Planted Trees."Jean Giono is one of the giants of modern French letters. He is the poet of the French countryside and of the French peasant, of man and nature, and the relation of man to nature. His books stand apart; there is nothing else in all French literature quite like them" Living Age"As with Faulkner, we have blood, night, violence, myth. To read Giono is to be immersed" Francois NourissierTranslated from the French by Henri Fluchere and Geoffrey Myers.