The Widow Couderc

byGeorges Simenon, Siân Reynolds (Translator)

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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 . . . 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

Barry Forshaw, Financial Times

About Georges Simenon

Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium in 1903. An intrepid traveller with a profound interest in people, Simenon strove on and off the page to understand, rather than to judge, the human condition in all its shades. His novels include the Inspector Maigret series and a richly varied body of wider work united by its evocative power, its economy of means, and its penetrating psychological insight. He is among the most widely read writers in the global canon. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780141998367
  • Length: 192 pages
  • Price: £5.99