Novels
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A Painter of Our Time
Book 1958
Books, Early Works, Migrants, Novels, Painting, UK
A Painter of our Time, first novel written by John Berger in 1958.
A Painter of Our Time is at once a gripping intellectual and moral detective story and a book whose aesthetic insights make it a companion piece to Berger’s great works of art criticism. The year is 1956. Soviet tanks are rolling into Budapest. In London, an expatriate Hungarian painter named Janos Lavin has disappeared following a triumphant on…
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The Foot of Clive
Book 1962
Books, Early Works, Novels, UK
The Foot of Clive, novel by John Berger, first edition in 1962.
In the centre of a 1960s hospital ward sits a curtained-off bed, guarded by a policeman. In it lies a murderer, hidden from view and likely to die before he can be hanged for his crime. In the closed, regimented society of the ward, his invisible presence fractures and rebuilds the way the other patients see the world. In the face of someone who …
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Corker’s Freedom
Book 1964
Books, Early Works, Novels, UK
Corker’s Freedom, novel by John Berger, first edition in 1964.
A powerfully unsettling, mordantly witty story about the pitfalls of free will. In the course of a day, the ageing owner of an employment agency is propelled into a fantasy world through his romantic yearnings and inarticulate dreams, seeking an illusory freedom from the bonds of responsibility.
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G
Book 1972
Books, Feminism, Novels
G, novel by John Berger, first edition in 1972. For this novel, John Berger won both the James Tait Black prize and the Booker Prize.
In this luminous novel about a modern Don Juan, John Berger relates the story of G., a young man forging an energetic sexual career in Europe during the early years of the last century as Europe teeters on the brink of war. With profound compassion, Berger explores the hearts and m…
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TRILOGY Into Their Labours
Book 1992
Animals, Books, Countryside, France, Migrants, Novels, Peasants, Quincy, Short Stories, Workers
Into Their Labours, trilogy by John Berger, first edition in 1992 : Pig Earth (1979), Once in Europa (1986) and Lilac and Flag (1990). A trilogy of novels that traces the journey of the European peasant from the mountains to the metropolis.
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Pig Earth
Book 1979
Animals, Books, France, Novels, Peasants, Quincy, Short Stories, Workers
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 instan…
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Once in Europa
Book 1986
Animals, Books, France, Novels, Peasants, Quincy, Short Stories, Workers
Once in Europa, book of novels by John Berger, first edition in 1982. Second volume of his trilogy Into Their Labours (1992).
A collection of interwoven stories, this is a portrait of two worlds – a small Alpine village bound to the earth and by tradition, and the restless, future-driven culture that will invade it – at their moment of collision. The instrument of entrapment is love. Lives are lost and hearts bro…
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Lilac and Flag
Book 1990
Books, Migrants, Novels, Peasants, Quincy, Workers
Lilac and Flag, novel by John Berger, first edition in 1990. Third and last volume of his trilogy Into Their Labours (1992).
In the mythic city of Troy, amidst the shanty-towns, factories, opulent hotels, fading heritages and steadfast dreams, the children and grandchildren of rural peasants pursue meagre livings as best they can. And two young lovers embark upon a passionate journey of love and survival.
«&…
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To the Wedding
Book 1995
Books, Novels
To the Wedding, novel by John Berger, first edition in 1995.
A mother and father, estranged for years, are travelling across Europe to their daughter’s wedding. Vibrant, beautiful Ninon has fallen in love with the young Italian Gino. She is twenty-three years old – and she is dying of AIDS. As their wedding approaches, the story of Ninon and Gino unfolds. On their wedding day, Ninon will take off her shoes and …
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King: A Street Story
Book 1999
Books, Katya Berger Andreadakis, Novels, Workers
King: A Street Story, novel by John Berger, first edition in 1999. Translated in French by Katya Berger Andreadakis for Éditions L’Olivier (1999).
A furious homage to the homeless and a lyrical meditation on language and experience. You will be led to a place you haven’t been, from where few stories come. You will be led by King, a dog (or is he?) to a wasteland beside the motorway called Saint Valery.
«&…
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Here is Where We Meet
Book 2005
Books, Katya Berger Andreadakis, Novels
Here is Where We Meet, novel by John Berger, first edition in 2005. Translated in French by Katya Berger Andreadakis for Éditions L’Olivier (2006).
No one appreciates the detail of being alive more than the dead. In Lisbon, a man encounters his mother sitting on a park bench who laughs with the impudence of a schoolgirl. She has been dead for fifteen years. In Krakow market he recognises Ken, his passeur,…
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JOHN BERGER
Storyteller, essayist, novelist, screenwriter, playwright, painter and critic, John Berger (1926-2017) is one of the most internationally influential writers of the last fifty years. Solo or in collaboration with Jean Mohr for example, he published more than 30 titles, the Booker Prize winning novel G and the best-seller Ways of Seeing. He has also published articles in the most important newspapers around the world.
He used to work and live in Quincy, a small French peasant community, the setting for his trilogy Into their Labours.
Painters, cineasts, writers, dancers, curators have been and are still inspired by his work, this website is a window on these TODAY creations.