An NYRB Classics Original Deep in Provence, a century ago, four stone houses perch on a hillside. Wildness presses in from all sides. Beyond a patchwork of fields, a mass of green threatens to overwhelm the village. The animal world—a miming cat, a malevolent boar—displays a mind of its own. The four houses have a dozen residents—and then there is Gagou, a mute drifter. Janet, the eldest of the men, is bedridden; he feels snakes writhing in his fingers and speaks in tongues. Even so, all is well until the village fountain suddenly stops running. From this point on, humans and the natural world are locked in a life-and-death struggle. All the elements—fire, water, earth, and air—come into play. From an early age, Jean Giono roamed the hills of his native Provence. He absorbed oral traditions and, at the same time, devoured the Greek and Roman classics. Hill, his first novel and the first winner of the Prix Brentano, comes fully back to life in Paul Eprile’s poetic translation.

ジャン・ジオノの処女作である本作は、自然を単なる背景ではなく、意志を持つ巨大な神霊として描いた驚異のアニミズム文学です。プロヴァンスの荒野で、水が枯れ火が迫る極限状態の中、文明を剥ぎ取られた人間たちが直面する「生ける大地」の不気味なまでの躍動感は、現代の我々に自然への根源的な畏怖を突きつけます。 ギリシャ悲劇のような荘厳な文体で綴られるのは、人間中心主義の崩壊と、土の匂いや風の叫びといった感覚の復権です。老人の譫妄が世界の真理を暴き、沈黙の荒野が咆哮を上げる。読者はこの豊饒かつ峻烈な言葉の奔流に身を投じることで、自分自身もまた自然という巨大な循環の一部であるという、残酷で美しい真理に打ち震えるはずです。