The Horseman on the Roof

Angelo is an young Italian nobleman and soldier whose hot-headedness has forced him into a desperate exile in France. While making his way slowly back to Italy, he witnesses the intense ravages of a cholera epidemic in Provence, and his natural romanticism, heroism, and thirst for adventure take over and change the course of his travels. Jean Giono, known as a 20th-century master of French letters, also wrote the lyrical The Man Who Planted Trees.