Description

‘And so, with great care, he planted his hundred acorns’

While hiking through the wild lavender in a wind-swept, desolate valley in Provence, a man comes across a solitary shepherd called Elzeard Bouffier. Staying with him, he watches Elzeard sorting and then planting hundreds of acorns as he walks through the wilderness.

Ten years later, after surviving the First World War, he visits the shepherd again. A young forest is slowly spreading over the valley – Elzeard has continued his work. Year after year the narrator returns to see the miracle being created: a verdant, green landscape that is testament to one man’s creative instinct. miracle he is gradually creating: a verdant, green landscape that is a testament to one man’s creative instinct.

‘I love the humanity of this story and how one man’s efforts can change the future for so many’ Michael Morpurgo, Independent

VINTAGE EARTH is a series of books that reveals our ever-changing relationship with the environment. These are stories old and young, set in worlds real or imagined, that allow us to explore our connection to the natural world. Transformative, wild, surprising and essential, these novels take on the most urgent story of our times.

Publisher Review

* "One of the greatest writers of our generation." --Andre Mairaux * "Giono: he's a god. I rank him with Chateaubriand and Proust." --Jean d'Ormesson * "In Giono's work what every sensitive, full-blooded individual ought to be able to recognise at once is 'the song of the world." --Henry Miller