To the Slaughterhouse

Description

Long regarded as one of France's most distinguished writers, Jean Giono (1895-1970) produced one of his finest novels in TO THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE. The book describes the effect of the First World War on a small community in Provence in chilling detail. In some of the most fiercely realistic and horrifying scenes of war ever recreated in literature, Giono evokes the harsh, primitive conditions in the trenches, as well as the loneliness and anxiety experienced by those left at home. The gradual disintegration of normal life and morals in areas far from the fighting grimly parallels the wholesale destruction of men, land andanimals at the front. - Giono's cult best-seller The Man who Planted Trees has sold more than 50,000 copies, and has been filmed, as well as appearing on BBC Radio 4 and on stage - Giono is the author of more than thirty other works including the play The Horseman on the Roof - A committed pacifist, Giono hid dissidents during the Second World War, and was imprisoned by the Vichy government from 1944-1945

Jean Giono wrote more than 30 novels as well as many volumes of short stories, plays, poetry, essays, and film scripts. Imprisoned at the beginning of World War II for his pacifist views, he was wrongly imprisoned again for collaboration at the war's end. The author of the play The Horseman on the Roof and the much-acclaimed The Man Who Planted Trees, he is now firmly established as among the most distinguished of French writers.

'One of the most terrible and moving novels of war to have been written in our time.' - LISTENER 'Few books about the first world war have achieved a sharper intensity.' - SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Giono's curious blend of mysticism and realism becomes more and more potent.' - JAMES FENTON in THE NEW STATESMAN 'A rhapsody of the triumphant earth, sensuous as the opening to The Rainbow, and as stark and exact from the retina as yesterday.' - GUARDIAN