The Widow Couderc

<''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<>

About the author

Georges Simenon

Report

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

Product details

• Authors: Georges Simenon
• Assisted by: Siân Reynolds (Translation)
• Publisher: Penguin Books Uk
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Release: 28.11.2024, delayed
• EAN: 9780241634332
• ISBN: 978-0-241-63433-2
• No. of pages: 192
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 15 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Fiction > Suspense > Crime fiction, thrillers, espionage; FICTION / Crime, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological, Fiction in translation, FICTION / Noir, Narrative theme: Interior life, Montluçon, Psychological thriller, c 1930 to c 1939, Crime and mystery: hard-boiled crime, noir fiction, FICTION / World Literature / France / 20th Century, mystery; classic; noir; literary fiction; detective