{"product_id":"great-fear-on-the-mountain-9781953861825","title":"Great Fear on the Mountain","description":"\u003cb\u003eA haunting, allegorical Swiss masterpiece centered around a posse of villagers as they brave dark elements to ascend a mountain, thicketed with lore\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTeeming with tension, this immersive, rhapsodic story transports readers to the Swiss mountainside, bringing to mind the writing of Thomas Mann while offering character studies as vivid and bracing as Eudora Welty's. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFeed is running low in a rural village in Switzerland. The town council meets to decide whether or not to ascend a chimerical mountain in order to access the open pastures that have enough grass to \"feed seventy animals all summer long.\" The elders of the town protest, warning of the dangers and the dreadful lore that enfolds the mountain passageways like thick fog. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThey've seen it all before, reckoning with the loss of animals and men who have tried to reach the pastures nearly twenty years ago. The younger men don't listen, making plans to set off on their journey despite all warnings. Strange things happen. Spirits wrestle with headstrong young men. As the terror of life on the mountain builds, Ramuz's writing captures the rural dialog and mindsets of the men. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOne of the most talented translators working today, Bill Johnston captures the careful and sublime twists and turns of the original in his breathtaking translation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCharles-Ferdinand Ramuz\u003c\/b\u003e (1878--1947) was a Swiss novelist whose realistic, poetic, and allegorical stories of man against nature made him one of the most iconic French-Swiss writers of the 20th century. As a young man, he moved to Paris to pursue a life of writing, where he befriended Igor Stravinsky and later wrote the libretto for \u003ci\u003eThe Soldier's Tale \u003c\/i\u003e(1918). Ramuz pioneered a Swiss literary identity, writing books about mountaineers, farmers, or villagers engaging in often tragic struggles against catastrophe. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eBill Johnston \u003c\/b\u003eis Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University. His translations include Witold Gombrowicz's \u003ci\u003eBacacay\u003c\/i\u003e; Magdalena Tulli's \u003ci\u003eDreams and Stones, Moving Parts, Flaw\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eIn Red\u003c\/i\u003e; and \u003ci\u003eEnnemonde \u003c\/i\u003eby Jean Giono. In 2008 he won the inaugural Found in Translation Award for Tadeusz Rozewicz's \u003ci\u003enew poems\u003c\/i\u003e, and in 2012 he was awarded the PEN Translation Prize and Three Percent's Best Translated Book Award for Myśliwski's\u003ci\u003e Stone Upon Stone\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Archipelago Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50878222827794,"sku":"9781953861825","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_eafe2d49-83f5-48fd-a345-ba2bdb117fde.jpg?v=1738259500","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/great-fear-on-the-mountain-9781953861825","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}