Winter, a tiny village in the Alps is covered in snow: the snow is falling incessantly, it has whitened all the surroundings, houses, roads, fields are swept away. An avalanche is about to fall from the mountain, and then the inhabitants will face inevitable death. A light breeze or a careless shout is enough to move an avalanche. People find themselves locked in the village, and it seems that life there has stopped, only snow remains - on the roofs, on the streets, in conversations and in prayers. The world has become closed, reduced to a handful of neighbors and a few kitchens where housewives still brew coffee. What is happening in this world? What do people do, what do they think about? What are their desires? And, most importantly, do they want to leave their homes in order to escape an avalanche? Giovanni Orelli (born 1928) is a Swiss writer and poet. The novel “The Year of the Avalanche” was published in Italian in 1965. Published in Russian for the first time.