Jean Carrière was a french author who won the Prix Goncourt back in 1972 after the publication of his novel L'Épervier de Maheux which was translated into 14 languages, but apparently not English. He had published more than 20 books many of them novels and Un Jardin pour L'Éternel appeared in 1999 towards the end of his life. After the fame that goes with winning France's greatest literary prize and a family tragedy, he suffered from depression and took himself out of Paris to spend the later part of his life in a small village in the hilly region of Cévennes. He was a friend and secretary of Jean Giono and it is unsurprising that the real character in his novels is the french countryside.

The novel's setting is in the commune of Saint-Laurent in the Cévennes during the first world war. Pierre-Ézechiel has just returned from the horrors of the trench warfare missing the lower part of one of his legs. He has survived an operation in a field hospital, and has discharged himself as soon as possible to return home, where he intends to make himself a wooden stump. His faith in God has been shaken by the war and he is anxious to find his peace and get back to his roots in the countryside. His wife and daughter had died before the war and his son looks after the farm; he cannot settle to anything and his friend the mayor of the commune suggests that he use a strip of land on the other side of a hill, now almost forgotten. When Pierre-Ézechiel sees the valley he is astounded by the beauty and discovers a micro-climate and also some stone walled paths now overgrown. His faith in God restored he sets about clearing the site and finds that his energy and strength have returned. He will dedicate his work to the Éternel his word for God. Pierre-Ezechiel begins to see the Éternal in everything he does and together with the discovery that the valley was the scene of a massacre of protestants during the religious wars fires him to accomplish work that astounds the few people who witness it. He becomes obsessed with the valley looking for more projects and distances himself from his family, just finding time to make the two hours journey on foot to get back for his sons wedding. As the years pass he becomes ascetic, withdrawing from the life of the commune and builds himself a shack in his valley, surviving the harsh winters that keep him snowbound. However it is impossible for him to live his life without interference from others and his physical and mental powers begin to fail.

Jean Carrière is at his best when describing the harsh beauty of the landscape and also his portrait a man whose obsession with carving out his own path through life, with an unshakeable faith in what he is doing. The picture that emerges of the rural commune and the changing of the seasons is keenly sensitive. In my opinion he also manages to enlist the readers sympathies for a man whose severe lifestyle is of his own making. The success of this novel depends on the author being able to summon the power in his language to plunge his readers into the rurality of the life and times of an ascetic, escaping from the horrors of war and to a large extent he does this. It is a book that took this reader to another place and one that I could understand. A four star read. ( )