First published 2017
Andreas Egger comes to the valley when he is about four years old. Nobody knows his exact age. He grows into a capable farmhand and joins a work crew building one of the first mountain railways. The project brings electricity, light, and noise to the quiet valley. One day Egger meets Marie, the woman who becomes the love of his life. He will lose her, but she returns to him many years later when he takes his final journey. As an old man whom time has passed by, Egger looks back with wonder at the years behind him. This simple story follows one man's entire existence in a single place, watching as the modern world transforms his mountain home.
Genres: fiction, romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, life-story
Setting: Valley, Mountain
Period: Early-20th-Century
160 pages · Paperback · Picador