Two Riders of the Storm — Jean Giono

Two brothers, Marceau and Ange Jason, are members of a family renowned and respected for its brutality and are therefore bound together with ties stronger than those of ordinary brotherly love. This affection soon turns to hatred after Marceau kills a wild horse with a single blow at a country fair, becoming the local wrestling champion. As his strength increases and his fame spreads, the younger sibling's jealousy causes this bond to snap. The end, when it comes, is a violent -- and deadly -- confrontation. Two Riders of the Storm is a story of a Cain-and-Abel-like struggle for supremacy in its most primitive form described with an intense and stark poetic beauty that transforms the brutal imagery into elemental forces of life death.