HARVEST Jean Giono Viking ($2.50).
Jean Giono, 44, is a burly, self-educated French-Italian hillbilly, whom critics have called "one of the giants of modern French letters." He lives in a remote mountain village of the Basses-Alpes, writes unusual novels about hamhanded, muscularly poetic peasants against bright-colored, heroic landscapes. He eschews the literary world, refuses to visit Paris,* and has become almost a legendary figure in France. Two years ago U. S. readers were introduced to Giono with The Song of the World, agreed that Giono packs a powerful pastoral punch.
Slighter than...