The latest addition to my website is Jean Giono‘s Le Chant du monde (The Song of the World). This is another superb novel from Giono, something of a Western but with a very French flavour. Sailor, a man of the forest, calls on his friend, Antonio, a man of the river, to help him find his son, Danis, who seems to have disappeared. Danis had a twin brother, who died the previous year. The two men set out and, on the way, come across a blind woman giving birth, a group of cattle herders working for cattle boss, Maudru, and Maudru’s nephew, who has been shot in the stomach. Antonio soon works out that Danis had shot him. They find Danis and Gina, Maudru’s niece, hiding out at Sailor’s brother-in-law and the inevitable Western-style showdown occurs. While the plot is certainly worth following, what makes this book is Giono’s wonderful portrayal of the natural environment and how much the people are in tune with it.