An Alpine village decides to send its cattle to summer pasture on a high meadow, with the younger men outvoting elders who remember a previous disaster. Seven men go up with the cows, including Joseph, trying to earn enough for his marriage to Victorine, the thirteen year old Ernest, the aging Barthélemy, clutching a talismanic piece of paper for protection, and the mysterious and menacing Clou. But this doesn't end well, for them or for the rest of the village.

There are some striking characters in Great Fear on the Mountain and it has some moments of intense drama, but these involve individual confrontations with the mountain as much as social drama. Centred on the uneasy relationship of the village with the mountain, and dominated by descriptions of landscapes and the human experience of them, this is an unusual and memorable novel.

December 2025

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