Kees Popinga is a solid Dutch burgher whose idea of a night on the town is a game of chess at his club. Or so it has always appeared. But one night this model husband and devoted father discovers his boss is bankrupt and that his own carefully tended life is in ruins. Before, he had looked on impassively as the trains to the outside world swept by; now he catches the first train he can to Amsterdam. Not long after that, he commits murder.
Kees Popinga is tired of being Kees Popinga. He's going to turn over a new leaf—though there will be hell to pay.

A brilliant new translation of Simenon's critically acclaimed masterpiece.

'And always the dirty snow, the heaps of snow that look rotten, with black patches and embedded garbage ... unable to cover the filth.'

Nineteen-year-old Frank - thug, thief, son of a brothel owner - gets by surprisingly well despite living in a city under military occupation, but a warm house and a full stomach are not enough to make him feel truly alive in such a climate of deceit and betrayal. During a bleak, unending winter, he embarks on a string of violent and sordid crimes that set him on a path from which he can never return. Georges Simenon's matchless novel is a brutal, compelling portrayal of a world without pity; a devastating journey through a psychological no-man's land.

'Among the best novels of the twentieth century' New Yorker

'An astonishing work' John Banville

'So noir it makes Raymond Chandler look beige' Independent

Maurice Dudon, comptable, vit seul dans un minable logis du XIVᵉ arrondissement. On dirait qu'il se punit pour des fautes imaginaires. Chose étrange, il lui arrive de détourner de petites sommes d'argent dont il n'a nul besoin. Seul, un accident pourrait modifier cette existence de cloporte.
Il survient un vendredi soir, après la visite hebdomadaire de Dudon chez une prostituée. Une voiture le happe sur la chaussée. L'homme qui conduisait, un riche notable parisien, l'installe à ses frais dans une clinique privée. On choie le blessé et on le confie à Anne-Marie, une infirmière rieuse et sensuelle qu'il épouse à peine rétabli.
Le destin tout neuf et imprévisible qui les attend dira seul si Maurice est un pauvre type ou un salaud, Anne-Marie une roulure ou une brave fille.