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Reading lists

9 beach reads set in Italy

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What to read next

The ultimate Eurovision-inspired reading list

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Extracts

The Strangers in the House, by Georges Simenon

How Georges Simenon and Maigret reinvented the detective novel | Penguin 2019

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Features

How Georges Simenon reinvented the detective novel with Maigret

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Writing life: Georges Simenon

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The book behind the new play by David Hare, The Red Barn

Inspector Maigret #47

Maigret and the Headless Corpse

The discovery of a dismembered body in the Canal Saint Martin leads Maigret into a tangled, baffling case involving a taciturn bistro-owner and a mysterious inheritance. This is a matchless description of a harsh, grim part of Paris a long way from the tourist trail, and a perfect example of Maigret's forensic police-work.

'The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect' Daily Telegraph 
A baffling case. A mysterious inheritance. 
It starts when a man's arm is fished out of Paris's Canal Saint-Martin. Then the rest of the body is retrieved - apart from the head. Inspector Maigret is determined to unearth the truth behind this disturbing murder. When he meets the strangely taciturn owner of a shabby local bistro, Madame Calas, who says her husband is away, the pieces start to fall into place. But, as the dogged, laconic detective discovers, nothing in this tangled case is as it seems.

Not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor.

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.

One of Simenon's masterpieces ... Simenon's subject is how people who are pushed to the edge push themselves over it; the force of the sleuthing is that of psychoanalysis, not police interrogation.

Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. He is best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret novels and his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.

The Widow Couderc

A bus stops on the road to Montluçon, and there two strangers meet: Tati, a steely widow, who runs the farm her late husband left behind, and Jean, an odd, quiet man with nowhere to go. There is between them an affinity and Jean agrees to lodge with Tati, and help with the farm as he can. In the still and heat of the summer, they labour together and, inevitably, begin their affair. But nothing is at it seems, and as affections strain and stray, their relationship hurtles toward a disturbing doom . . . 
 
First published in 1942 at the same time as Albert Camus' The Outsider, this is Simenon's existentialist masterpiece - a powerful exploration of desire and death, of the barbarous edge that encircles the human soul.

'Sensuously detailed . . . edgy . . . riveting' Financial Times 
 
Two strangers meet on a bus along a dusty road in rural France. Tati is a tough, work-worn widow, who runs the farm her late husband left behind, while trying to keep out of the way of her predatory in-laws. Jean is an odd, quiet man, recently out of prison, with nowhere to go. 
 
These lost souls recognize something in each other, and Jean becomes Tati's lodger and farm worker. In the still and heat of the summer, they labour together and, inevitably, begin to sleep together. Soon, however, their strange affair will become something altogether darker. 
 
First published in 1942 at the same time as Albert Camus' The Outsider, this is Simenon's existentialist masterpiece, exploring the dangerous mystery of who we are and what we desire. 
 
'Published, like The Outsider, in 1942, and at least equal to Camus's work in portraying a doomed and alienated life' David Hare

Sensuously detailed . . . edgy . . . this is incrementally more and more riveting, as the joyless sex between the two central characters leads to a grim conclusion . . . a nonpareil new translation

When I discovered that the author of the Maigret series was also the author of stand-alone novels, my expectations of the genre changed and expanded. These books belonged more alongside Camus and Sartre than Arthur Conan Doyle. . . . Try The Widow, published, like The Outsider, in 1942, and at least equal to Camus's work in portraying a doomed and alienated life

Dark, disturbing . . . Simenon discovered something fundamental about the soul

Direct, spare, sensously atmospheric, hypnotic in its realism, and honest in a way that few novelists would dare to be

To me, Simenon is as good as Camus

Irresistible . . . read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss

Every year, Simenon would rage at the &ldquo;idiots of Stockholm&rdquo; who yet again had refused him the Nobel Prize in literature. I used to think this was crazy; now I think it quite sane. His romans durs are spare and harsh, with a deep understanding of human nature; this is one of his finest

The genius of Simenon, aided by a brilliant translation, compels the eye and captures the heart.

A welcome new translation of a key Simenon standalone. With its sensuously detailed rustic setting and edgy interactions between a widow managing her own farm and the dissolute, privileged ex-convict Jean, this is quietly hypnotic fare

Georges Simenon (Author) 
Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. He is best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret novels and his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.

Inspector Maigret #31

My Friend Maigret

Georges Simenon's brilliant pipe-smoking detective, Jules Maigret, is one of the most beloved literary creations of the twentieth century. In this adventure, an officer from Scotland Yard is studying Maigret's methods when a call from an island off the Côte d'Azure sends the two men off to an isolated community to investigate its eccentric inhabitants.

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith 
 
Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil. 
 
Georges Simenon's brilliant pipe-smoking detective, Jules Maigret, is one of the most beloved literary creations of the twentieth century. In this adventure, an officer from Scotland Yard is studying Maigret's methods when a call from an island off the Côte d'Azure sends the two men off to an isolated community to investigate its eccentric inhabitants.

The New Investigations of Inspector Maigret

One of the greatest writers of the 20th century . . . no other writer can set up a scene as sharply and with such economy as Simenon does . . . the conjuring of a world, a place, a time, a set of characters - above all, an atmosphere.

A superior stylist . . . photographic . . . Simenon's subject is how people who are pushed to the edge push themselves over it; the force of the sleuthing is that of psychoanalysis, not police interrogation.

Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor

Strangely comforting . . . so many lovely bistros from the Paris of mid-20th C. The corpses are incidental, it's the food that counts

Simenon's supreme virtue as a novelist, to burrow beneath the surface of his characters' behaviour; to empathise . . . it is this unfailing humanity that makes the Maigret books truly worth reading

A gem of a read. It's like discovering a buried treasure trove of words, characters and dialogue which both entertain and make you think

The Hatter's Ghosts

Nobody mentioned the victims, or the terror that had gripped the town. For the last twenty days it had rained and between the usual quiet conversations and card games, only the trickle of water and the air of cold fear could be detected. A serial killer stalks La Rochelle's cobbled streets - and by the most unfortunate of occurrences, Kachoudas, a poor timid tailor and a newcomer to the town, knows exactly who it is... 
 
One of Georges Simenon's darkest novels, The Hatter's Ghosts is a riveting portrait of murder and subterfuge, at once a cat and mouse thriller and an acute physiological study of the criminal imagination.

A masterful tale of murder and intrigue in a small French town, from the celebrated author of the Maigret series 
 
Not only had the rain in the dark streets, with a halo around each light and reflections on the ground, always given him a certain thrill, it also made it easier for him to move around. 
 
It has been raining for twenty days in La Rochelle - ever since the first murder. Since then, five more bodies have been found. In the cafes, over card games, a quiet terror of the killer in their midst spreads through the little town. But unknown to anyone, Kachoudas, a poor, timid tailor, has discovered, quite by accident, who the murderer is. As a twisted cat and mouse game begins, Simenon's chilling novel takes us into the darkness of the criminal mind. 
 
'Dark, disturbing ... Simenon discovered something fundamental about the soul' Guardian

A unique teller of tales ... What interested Simenon was the average man losing control of his own fate

Georges Simenon (Author) Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. He is best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret novels and his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.

The Venice Train

'There were some weeks that were painful, nerve-racking. At the office or at home, in the middle of a meal, he would suddenly find his forehead bathed in sweat, a tightness in his chest, and at those times, feeling everyone's eyes on him was unbearable.' 
 
When an unusually inquisitive stranger strikes up conversation with Justin Calmar on the train home from a family holiday, his sun-drenched memories are overshadowed by an event that will change his life forever. As he travels alone through northern Italy and Switzerland, his carefully constructed life as an upright citizen begins to unravel, revealing secret motivations and hidden impulses that threaten to overwhelm him. 
 
Originally published in 1965, shortly after Simenon moved into the spacious new home he had built in Épalinges, Switzerland, this chilling novel is a powerful exploration of the fragility of the human psyche.

'There were some weeks that were painful, nerve-racking. At the office or at home, in the middle of a meal, he would suddenly find his forehead bathed in sweat, a tightness in his chest, and at those times, feeling everyone's eyes on him was unbearable.' 
 
During a chance meeting on the train from Venice to Paris, a stranger asks Justin Calmar to deliver a briefcase for him to an address in Switzerland. Soon this ordinary family man will become hopelessly, fatally, ensnared in a world of guilt, lies and paranoia. 
 
Originally published in 1965, shortly after Simenon moved into the new home he had built in Épalinges, Switzerland, this chilling novel is a powerful exploration of the fragility of the human psyche.

Georges Simenon

Siân Reynolds

Inspector Maigret

Discover the new Penguin Crime and Espionage series 
 
A stolen weapon. A troubled young man. A race against time... 
 
Inspector Maigret receives a call from his wife to say he has a visitor at their apartment. But when he gets home, the young man has already gone, along with Maigret's prized Smith and Wesson .45. The trail to find the culprit - and the woman who may become his victim - takes Maigret across Paris and all the way to the Savoy Hotel in London. But getting to the truth may be even more complicated than he had first imagined.

Georges Simenon

Maigret's Revolver

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