Pig Earth, book of novels by John Berger, first edition in 1979. First volume of his trilogy Into Their Labours (1992).
Set in a small village in the French Alps, Pig Earth relates the stories of sceptical, hard-working men and fiercely independent women. This book is an act of reckoning that conveys the precise wealth and weight of a world we are losing.
« The cow’s legs fold and her body collapses instantaneously. When a viaduct breaks, its masonry appears to fall slowly into the valley below. But the cow came down as fast as a lightning. It was not cement which held her body together, but energy. »
