by Émile Zola
Part of Les Rougon-Macquart, book 5
First published 1967
Serge Mouret serves as priest in a poor village on the scorched plateaus of southern France. He barricades himself in his small church, absorbed in his faith and bound to the rigid schedule his elderly servant imposes. Living more like a hermit than a village priest, Serge follows religious rituals with devoted precision. Then illness strikes, leaving him with complete amnesia. In this blank state, he wanders into the Paradou, a vast overgrown park where nature runs wild. Here he encounters both passionate love with a woman and the overwhelming abundance of the natural world. The experience becomes a second birth for him, awakening senses and desires he never knew existed. But like Adam cast from paradise, Serge faces exile from this garden of earthly delights. His recovery forces a choice between the austere certainties of his religious calling and the intoxicating pull of human love and natural beauty.
Genres: fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, second-chance
Setting: France, Paradou, Southern France
Period: 19th Century
512 pages · Mass Market Paperback · LGF