{"product_id":"a-king-alone-paperback","title":"A King Alone - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJean Giono\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eAlyson Waters\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator), \u003cb\u003eSusan Stewart\u003c\/b\u003e (Introduction by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn existential detective story by one of France's most popular modern writers, set in a mid-nineteenth century mountain village, available in English for the first time\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eA King Alone \u003c\/i\u003eis set in a remote Alpine village that is cut off from the world by rugged mountains and by long months when the ground is covered with snow and the heavens with cloud. One such winter, villagers begin mysteriously to disappear. Soon the village is paralyzed by terror, which gives way to relief and eager anticipation when the outsider Langlois arrives to investigate. What he discovers, however, will leave no one reassured, and his reappearance in the village a few years later, now assigned the task of guarding it from wolves, awakens those troubling memories. A man of few words, a regal manner, and military efficiency, Langlois baffles and fascinates the villagers, whose different responses to him shape Jean Giono's increasingly charged narrative. This novel about a tiny community at the dangerous edge of things and a man of law who is a man alone could be described as a metaphysical Western. It unfolds with the uncanny inevitability and disturbing intensity of a dream.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJean Giono \u003c\/b\u003e(1895-1970) was born and lived most of his life in the town of Manosque, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Largely self-educated, he started working as a bank clerk at the age of sixteen and reported for military service when World War I broke out. After the success of \u003ci\u003eHill\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the Prix Brentano, he left the bank and began to publish prolifically. During World War II his outspoken pacifism led some to accuse him, unjustly, of defeatism and collaboration with the Nazis. After France's liberation in 1944, he was imprisoned and held without charges. Despite being blacklisted after his release, Giono continued writing and achieved renewed success. He was elected to the Académie Goncourt in 1954. NYRB Classics publishes Giono's \u003ci\u003eHill \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eMelville\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlyson Waters \u003c\/b\u003ehas translated several works from the French by Albert Cossery, Louis Aragon, René Belletto, and others. She teaches literary translation in the French department of Yale University and is the managing editor of \u003ci\u003eYale French Studies\u003c\/i\u003e. For NYRB Classics, Waters has translated Emmanuel Bove's \u003ci\u003eHenriDuchemin and His Shadows\u003c\/i\u003eand, for The New York Review Children's Collection, \u003ci\u003eThe Tiger Prince \u003c\/i\u003eby Chen Jiang Hong. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eSusan Stewart\u003c\/b\u003e, the Avalon Foundation University Professor in the Humanities at Princeton University, is a poet, critic, and translator. A former MacArthur Fellow and Chancellor of the Academy of American poets, she is the author of six books of poems, including \u003ci\u003eColumbarium\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and, most recently, \u003ci\u003e Cinder: New and Selected Poems\u003c\/i\u003e. Her many prose works include \u003ci\u003eOn Longing\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePoetry and the Fate of the Senses\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Open Studio: Essays in Art and Aesthetics\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Poet's Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e. Her forthcoming book \u003ci\u003eThe Ruins Lesson: Meaning and Material in Western Culture\u003c\/i\u003e will be available from The University of Chicago Press in Fall 2019.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 176\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 7.9 x 5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 25, 2019\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51770366394656,"sku":"9781681373096","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/6cffa2841dd77d4be8cf73089f9818ff.webp?v=1780370266","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/a-king-alone-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}