Most Popular Books by Georges Simenon

Hardworking Dutch family man Kees Popinga loses his money when the shipping firm he works for collapses. Something snaps and from the shell of a modern citizen emerges a calculating paranoiac, capable of random acts of violence - even murder.

''The father of contemporary European detective fiction'' Ann Cleeves Cars drove past along with the trucks and trams, but by now Maigret had realised that they were not important. Whatever roared by like this along the road was not part of the landscape. ... What really counted was the lock, the hooting of the tugs, the stone crusher, the barges and the cranes, the two pilots'' bars and especially the tall house where he could make out Ducrau''s red chair framed by a window. Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in a previous translation as The Lock at Charenton. ''Compelling, remorseless, brilliant'' John Gray ''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'' Independent

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré When Inspector Maigret’s .45 revolver is stolen from his home, he becomes embroiled in a murder in which the gun may have played a deadly role Maigret is the victim of a burglary in which the .45 revolver he had received as a gift from the FBI is stolen. That evening Maigret attends a dinner where François Lagrange, an acquaintance of Maigret’s friend, is expected but fails to appear due to ill health. Following his instincts, Maigret decides to investigate Lagrange’s absence and uncovers a body stowed in a trunk, as well as Lagrange, who refuses to talk and seems to have lost his mind. Only Maigret can uncover the truth—and the fateful role his revolver may have played.

''Compelling, remorseless, brilliant'' John Gray During a quiet spell in June Maigret is called to investigate the disappearance of a reputable businessman. When a body is discovered near the famous Père Lachaise cemetery Maigret struggles to find any clues to the perpetrator and loses his temper when his own reputation is threatened by the case. This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret Loses His Temper. ''His artistry is supreme'' 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

One of the world?s most successful crime writers, Georges Simenon has thrilled mystery lovers around the world since 1931 with his matchless creation Inspector Maigret. In The Madman of Bergerac, Maigret gets caught up in an investigation in a provincial French town terrorized by a maniacal murderer?only after being shot following a man who has mysteriously jumped off a moving train. The Madman of Bergerac captures the obsessive snobbery and hypocrisy of small-town bourgeoisie.

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Georges Simenon''s chilling portrayal of tragic love, persecution and betrayal. ''One sensed in him neither flesh nor bone, nothing but soft, flaccid matter, so much so that his movements were hard to make out. Very red lips stood out from his orb-like face, as did the thin moustache that he curled with an iron and looked as if it had been drawn on with India ink; on his cheekbones were the symmetrical pink dots of a doll''s cheeks.'' People find Mr Hire strange, disconcerting. The tenants he shares his building with try to avoid him. He is a peeping Tom, a visitor of prostitutes, a dealer in unsavoury literature. He is also the prime suspect for a brutal murder that he did not commit. Yet Mr Hire''s innocence will not stand in the way of those looking for a scapegoat as tragedy unfolds in this quietly devastating and deeply unnerving novel. ''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

On a tiny Mediterranean island, a rowdy fisherman is shot dead mere hours after mentioning “my friend Maigret.” The suspects are few—and the famous inspector is trapped among them. On the tiny Mediterranean island of Porquerolles, the fisherman Marcel Pacaud has been shot dead. Hours earlier, he was overheard mentioning “my friend Maigret.” The inspector once knew Pacaud, who has a long rap sheet for pimping and violence. But that was many years ago. If Maigret’s name has inspired murder, he cannot fathom why. Stepping into Porquerolles’s intoxicating atmosphere of tropical heat and perfumed air, he questions an eccentric clique of islanders. Rich or poor, young or old, French, Dutch, or British: they’re all exiles from conventional society. Can Maigret solve the case before he succumbs to “porquerollitis” and joins them? In My Friend Maigret, Georges Simenon puts his mischievous twist on the closed circle mystery, crafting a portrait of an idyll marred by evil.

Two couples, Ray and Mona Sanders and Donald and Isabel Dodd, attend a party together. On their way home, a violent snowstorm prevents Dodd''s car from reaching the house. The four set out on foot, when they arrive, Ray has gone missing. Donald pretends to go looking for him in the snow, but, stupefied by fatigue and alcohol, he prefers to take refuge in the barn. As the night passes, Donald considers that his attachment to Ray is in fact only a badly disguised envy for a man who has succeeded financially. He begins to hate Ray and is convinced that he has just killed him by not coming to his aid. Donald''s physical and moral state deteriorates as he is tortured by his fantasies.

''Compelling, remorseless, brilliant'' John Gray For the first time in his career Inspector Maigret receives written summons to the Prefect''s office where he learns that he has been accused of assaulting a young woman. With his career and reputation on the line, Maigret must fight to prove his innocence. This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret on the Defensive. ''His artistry is supreme'' 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

“Georges Simenon was the twentieth century’s Balzac. But while Balzac spares us nothing of what he’s learned, Simenon’s genius is the art of reduction. He can teach you how to run a restaurant in a few sentences scattered throughout a novel and how to poison your spouse with even fewer lines.” —Gary Indiana Maigret, now fifty-six and retired as detective chief inspector, is crossing the Atlantic for the first time. But this isn’t a vacation: his traveling companion is law student Jean Maura, who believes his father is in trouble. The US-based millionaire’s recent letters betray a fear of imminent death, and he’s been disbursing his fortune in an eccentric manner. Then, as Maigret disembarks in blustery rain at the Statue of Liberty, Jean vanishes. Plunged alone into this brash city, the ex-inspector can only do what he does best: put his investigative mind to work. Moving between five-star hotels and dive bars, tailed by murderous gangsters and assisted by a mournful ex-clown and a mischievous FBI agent, Maigret unpins a long-buried grenade of secrets. A tautly electrifying thriller, this far-flung adventure for Maigret is also an eloquent portrait of mid-century New York, in all its dirt and glamour.

“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré An Inspector Maigret mystery and a gripping tale of lost identity “A man picked up for wandering in obvious distress among the cars and buses on the Grands Boulevards. Questioned in French, he remains mute . . . A madman? In Maigret''s office, he is searched. His suit is new, his underwear is new, his shoes are new. All identifying labels have been removed. No identification papers. No wallet. Five crisp thousand-franc bills have been slipped into one of his pockets.” A distressed man is found wandering the streets of Paris, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. The answers lead Maigret to a small harbour town, whose quiet citizens conceal a poisonous malice.

The Widow begins with the chance encounter of two outcasts. One is the widow herself, Tati. Still young, she hasn''t had an easy time of it, even if she''s not about to complain. She lives with her father-in-law on the family farm, putting up with his unwelcome attentions, working her fingers to the bone, improving the property and knowing all the time that her late husband''s sister is scheming to seize it and drive her away. The other is a killer. Just out of prison and in search of a new life, Jean meets up with Tati, who hires him as a handyman and then takes him to bed. Everything goes swimmingly until Jean develops a liking for the girl next door.

“Simenon has concentrated noir into a darkness as solid and heavy as the interior of a dwarf star.” —William T. Vollmann What happens to everyday morality in a time of political deceit and betrayal? In an unnamed city under military occupation, nineteen-year-old Frank—a low-level thug and thief—should be content enough with his warm home and full stomach, even against the dreariness of an endless winter. Instead, though, he’s inexorably drawn to commit a string of brutal, senseless acts of violence. Set against the backdrop of a bleak, pitiless world, Georges Simenon’s The Snow Was Dirty is a peerless indictment and examination of the chilling banality of evil.

When Maigret receives a visit from an old schoolmate whose mistress has been shot to death, he feels compelled to look into the case. Yet his friend is one of the suspects--along with the dead woman''s four other lovers, each unknown to the others. The basis for a public television Mystery! presentation. Translated by Eileen Ellenbogen. Maigret is a registered trademark of the Estate of Georges Simenon.

«Miliardi, miliardi e miliardi di animali sulla faccia della terra, per aria, nell’acqua, dappertutto, compiono senza sosta, minuto per minuto, uno sforzo di tutte le loro cellule verso un divenire che non conoscono, come le formiche che traversano precipizi trascinando fardelli cento volte più grandi di loro, si avventurano fra montagne di sabbia o di fango e ritentano dieci volte l’assalto a un medesimo ostacolo, senza che la loro carovana cambi strada». Così apparvero, all’occhio di Simenon, i primi anni della sua vita: innumerevoli piccoli gesti e piccole figure, grumi di pigmento su una tela sconfinata. Era un epos grandioso della piccolezza, delle esistenze oscure, una delle quali era stata la sua. Simenon viveva allora da sfollato a Fontenay-le-Comte, nel 1941. «Un medico, in base a una radiografia sospetta, mi annunciò che mi rimanevano al massimo due anni di vita e mi condannò a un’inattività quasi totale». Simenon non poteva però cessare di scrivere. Pensò a qualcosa di unico e di ultimo: raccontare la sua infanzia, in forma di lunga lettera al figlio. Poi quella lettera diventò romanzo, il più personale e segreto di Simenon, ma anche quello dove ritroviamo tutta la sostanza, in senso chimico, di tutti i suoi libri. Non è la storia dell’infanzia di un artista. Anzi, a lungo il piccolo Roger vi fa da comparsa, mentre campeggia sulla scena la minuta figura della madre Élise. Questa donna «che si scusa di esistere, di esserci, che chiede perdono prima d’aver fatto il male», ha la presenza perentoria dei grandi personaggi della letteratura. La sua fragilità è tutta apparente. Élise possiede una fibra inattaccabile e un occhio sicuro, che riconosce subito se il marito Désiré ha comprato un etto e mezzo di fegato invece di un etto. Pochi scrittori hanno saputo illuminare come Simenon i profondi misteri della piccola borghesia, e soprattutto della sua frangia più pura, quella che lotta testardamente per non cadere nella mera povertà, quella per cui il decoro è un baluardo contro l’umiliazione perpetua. Per questi esseri, fra i quali Simenon è cresciuto, i parenti, le stanze, i vestiti, le chiacchiere dei vicini formano una rete fittissima, che oscura il cielo e grava sulla vita. Quella rete è il pedigree di cui Simenon è stato il perfetto genealogista in tutta la sua opera. Mai però la sua lente si è avvicinata così tanto all’oggetto della narrazione come in questo libro. Qui i dettagli rimangono fissati come nella mente del bambino Roger quando finge di giocare e «contempla il meraviglioso pulviscolo dorato che sale dalla camera e viene come assorbito lentamente, irresistibilmente, dall’aria umida della strada». Così Roger diventerà, senza saperlo, uno scrittore già quella sera in cui, tornando a casa, ritrova «i pochi metri cubi luminosi e caldi della cucina, e tutti al loro posto, rigidi, racchiusi nell’immobilità dell’atmosfera come gli abitanti di Pompei nella lava». Allora, «per qualche istante sente il palpitare di una vita immateriale che è quella della casa, di quella casa e di nessun’altra, percepisce quasi il rodio del tempo». Diviso in tre parti, "Pedigree" fu scritto fra il 1941 e il 1943. La prima pubblicazione completa è del 1948.

Chief Inspector Maigret returns to the village of Saint-Fiacre, where he was born, after a note to the police warns that a crime will take place, and soon after he arrives the Countess de Saint-Fiacre dies, leaving Maigret to find the killer