Colline

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 field, 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…