The Widow Couderc

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

Guardian

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

John Banville

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

The Sunday Times

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

David Hare, Guardian

To me, Simenon is as good as Camus

Hanif Kureishi, Guardian

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

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

Barry Turner, Daily Mail

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

Financial Times

Every year, Simenon would rage at the "idiots of Stockholm" 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

Julian Barnes, The Week