Georges Simenon

Inspector Jules Maigret travels from grimy bars to luxury hotels as he traces the true identity of Pietr the Latvian.

Pietr the Latvian

For forty years Charles Alavoine has sleepwalked through his life. Growing up as a good boy in the grip of a domineering mother, he trains as a doctor, marries, opens a medical practice in a quiet country town, and settles into an existence of impeccable bourgeois conformity. And yet at unguarded moments this model family man is haunted by a sense of emptiness and futility. Then, one night, laden with Christmas presents, he meets Martine. It is time for the sleeper to awake.

Act of Passion

Newly revised, this classic by the late Belgian author explores the life of Frank, a pimp and thief who collaborated with the Nazis in occupied France and who spends a long winter seeking salvation from his many sins. Reprint.

Dirty Snow

La camera azzurra

"Restored to print for the first time in more than forty years, this masterpiece of psychological suspense tells the tale of Marcel Féron--a poor man who, against all odds, has made a 'normal' life in a bucolic French village in the Ardennes. But one spring day in 1940, the German army invades France, and he must abandon his home and confront the fate that he has secretly awaited. Separated from his pregnant wife and young daughter in the chaos of flight, he joins a freight car of refugees hurtling southward ahead of the pursuing Nazis. There, he meets Anna, a sad-looking, dark-haired girl, whose accent is 'neither Belgian nor German, ' and who 'seemed foreign to everything around her.'"--Page 4 of cover.

The Train

When an actor and recently divorced woman meet in a Manhattan bar, the two engage in a bit of romantic fantasy, transforming both of their lives and creating the context for a powerfully revealing mystery. Reprint.

Three Bedrooms in Manhattan

A brilliant new translation of one of Simenon's best loved masterpieces. 'A certain furtive, almost shameful emotion ... disturbed him whenever he saw a train go by, a night train especially, its blinds drawn down on the mystery of its passengers' Kees Popinga is a respectable Dutch citizen and family man. Then he discovers that his boss has bankrupted the shipping firm he works for - and something snaps. Kees used to watch the trains go by to exciting destinations. Now, on some dark impulse, he boards one at random, and begins a new life of recklessness and violence. This chilling portrayal of a man who breaks from society and goes on the run asks who we are, and what we are capable of. 'Classic Simenon ... extraordinary in its evocative power' Independent 'What emerges is the bare human animal' John Gray 'Read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss' Sunday Times

The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By

Red Lights

Monsieur Monde is a successful middle-aged businessman in Paris. One morning he walks out on his life, leaving his wife asleep in bed, leaving everything. Not long after, he surfaces on the Riviera, keeping company with drunks, whores and pimps, with thieves and their marks. A whole new world, where he feels surprisingly at home--at least for a while. Georges Simenon knew how obsession, buried for years, can come to life, and about the wreckage it leaves behind. He had a remarkable understanding of how bizarrely unaccountable people can be. And he had an almost uncanny ability to capture the look and feel of a given place and time. Monsieur Monde Vanishes is a subtle and profoundly disturbing triumph by the most popular of the twentieth century's great writers.

Monsieur Monde Vanishes

When a tape recorder is found on a murder victim, Inspector Maigret hopes this will be the clue he needs to track down the killer.

Maigret and the Killer

A new translation of George Simenon's taut, devastating psychological novel set in American suburbia. The inspiration for the new play by award-winning playwright David Hare. 'I had begun, God knows why, tearing a corner off of everyday truth, begun seeing myself in another kind of mirror, and now the whole of the old, more or less comfortable truth was falling to pieces' Confident and successful, New York advertising executive Ray Sanders takes what he wants from life. When he goes missing in a snow storm in Connecticut one evening, his closest friend begins to reassess his loyalties, gambling Ray's fate and his own future. 'The romans durs are extraordinary: tough, bleak, offhandedly violent, suffused with guilt and bitterness, redolent of place . . . utterly unsentimental, frightening in the pitilessness of their gaze, yet wonderfully entertaining' John Banville 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independen

The Hand

Inspector Jules Maigret investigates the murder of a prominent citizen of a little town on the coast of Brittany and, rather than make a quick arrest of a sad-eyed waitress who has seen too much, stays until justice is done. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

The Yellow Dog

Norman Rush

Marc Romano

Tropic Moon (New York Review Books Classics)

Pedigree

O Homem que via passar os combois

Tre camere a Manhattan

'Just take a look,' Duclos said in an undertone, pointing to the scene all round them, the picture-book town, with everything in its place, like ornaments on the mantlepiece of a careful housewife. 'Everyone here earns his living. Everyone's more or less content. And above all, everyone keeps his instincts under control, because that's the rule here, and a necessity if people want to live in society.' Outsiders are viewed with suspicion in the small Dutch town of Delfzijl. Maigret, unable to speak the language and a stranger to their strict, church-going way of life, must unearth the sins at the heart of this seemingly respectable community. 'An unstoppable novelist . . . one of the essential writers' Mark Lawson, Guardian

A Crime in Holland

"When multi-millionaire David Ward is found dead in the same hotel as a countess who attempted suicide only hours earlier, Maigret presumes that the two cases are connected. When the countess flees Paris after the murder Maigret follows her to Nice and then to Switzerland to uncover the truth."--Publisher's description.

Maigret Travels

Simenon explores the complexity of parent child relationships and the bitterness of things left unsaid in this stark, confessional piece.

Letter to My Mother

When he investigates the death of Monsieur Gallet, Inspector Maigret discovers that much of the man's life was a lie, and the strange behavior of his widow and son suggests that there is more to this family than meets the eye.

Georges Simenon

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