Village in the Mountains, The

THE VILLAGE IN THE MOUNTAINS is set in a fictional, southern European country in the middle of the twentieth century. After a brief period of democratic reform, the nation has once again become a totalitarian state under the rule of the Colonel, whose overriding creed is "Loyalty to the State, the Church, the Family". The narrator of the book is a left-wing poet from a prominent family, whose personal story is intertwined with the political events of his birthplace. During the days of the old dictatorship he lived abroad as a fêted émigré. During the interim period of democratic reform he returned to the country. Now that the New Régime has become established, he is sent to live as an exile to the mountains in the northeast. The village he is exiled to, Cagot—an isolated, primitive place high up in the border country—has a tragic history. Eight years earlier, four hundred pilgrims, paying homage to the statue of the Dark Virgin, were buried alive when the cave, housing the statue, collapsed. It is against this mountainous backdrop that a psychological drama is played out between the poet and the people with whom he comes into contact. There is Bernard, the manipulative, chess-playing Police Chief, to whom the poet must report every day; Isabella, the religiose brooding widow, who provides his meals in the ramshackle hotel where he is the only guest; Angela, the wife of the innkeeper; Henry, the schoolteacher; and Hubert Duval, the local aristocrat. It is Hubert who organises a fresh expedition to the cave of the Dark Virgin to see if, with the modern equipment now available, he can find a way to retrieve the bodies and provide them with a proper burial. The journey to the cave and the ensuing events compel the poet to make a decision which will change his life forever. THE AUTHOR was born and brought up in the English Midlands and spent most of his working life in Asia. As well as writing, he is interested in natural history and photography.