The name of Jean Giono (1895–1970), a member of the Académie Goncourt, is on a par with the outstanding writers of France - A. Gide, F. Mauriac, A. Camus. However, Giono has never been translated into Russian and is unknown in our country. This collection includes two novels belonging to the late, mature work of Giono - “The Hussar on the Roof” (1951) and “The Polish Mill” (1952): their artistic style does not fit into the usual formulas, it is one of a kind. “The Hussar on the Roof” is a historical chronicle about a real tragedy that struck the south of France in 1838 - a terrible cholera epidemic. The hero of the novel, whom life brings to these lands, is the hussar colonel Angelo, an Italian by birth, very close to Stendhal's Fabrizio del Dongo. Will he be able to resist fate and survive? “The Polish Mill” is also a novel about fate, about the inexorable power of fate that dominates many generations of the Kost family.