hilippe Cabassac is man whose world is slipping away and he barely notices, so obsessed is he with finding truffles. Truffles, and the vivid dreams he believes they inspire, are his link to his late wife Julieta. Cabassac's grief compels him to ignore the realities of his life. His land is sold off little by little. He has lost his position as a professor of Provençal language. All he is left with is a crumbling farm house and his dreams and he is about to loose those, too. Author Gustaf Sobin's The Fly-Truffler is a cry from the heart over the loss he feels for the land and the culture in which he has lived for the last forty years.      In a New York Times book review, Jennifer Rees wrote of Sobin and his novel, "his third novel is no happy wine soaked romp. He has painted a melancholy portrait of the Mediterranean countryside with a fine brush and deep shadows ... Sobin is a poet and it shows in every line. The Mediterranean world is here in all its robust sensuality, and Sobin moves beyond the familiar paeans to stone cottages and olive oil. He evokes a vital, sometimes feral countryside."      This is the first in a series of videos about authors and the places where their books are set. After more than thirty years as a photojournalist, John Giannini asks others the same question he has asked himself again and again. Why do people live where they live?      "I have lived and worked all over the world, principally in Asia and Europe," Giannini said. "Every place I've traveled, I've tried to understand why people live where they do. With authors I want to know what it is about certain places that makes them set their stories there. Since I live in France, the first series is about American authors who live and work here."