Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon - ISBN: 9780141392738
Paperback
Multiple identities, one enigmatic man: Maigret’s first case unfolds.

Pietr the Latvian

Inspector Maigret

$31.45

  • Paperback

    176 pages

  • Release Date

    13 January 2014

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Summary

A gripping new translation by David Bellos of the first novel which appeared in the famous Maigret series, revealing Simenon as a dark, visceral and surprising writer.

“What he sought, what he waited and watched out for was the crack in the wall. In other words, the instant when the human being comes out from behind the opponent …”

Who is Pietr the Latvian? Is he a gentleman thief? A Russian drinking absinthe in a grimy bar? A married Norwegian sea captain? A twisted corpse in…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780141392738
ISBN-10:0141392738
Author:Georges Simenon, David Bellos
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:Penguin Classics
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:176
Release Date:13 January 2014
Weight:137g
Dimensions:197mm x 129mm x 10mm
Series:Inspector Maigret
What They're Saying

Critics Review

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 * Times *
Strangely comforting … so many lovely bistros from the Paris of mid-20th C. The corpses are incidental, it’s the food that counts. * Margaret Atwood *
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. * Financial Times *
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. * Guardian *

About The Author

Georges Simenon

Georges Simenon (Author)

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.

David Bellos (Translator)

David Bellos is Meredith Howland Pyne Professor of French Literature at Princeton University, where he also teaches Comparative Literature. He is the author of many books and articles on nineteenth-century fiction, alongside biographies of three icons of French culture in the twentieth century- Georges Perec, Jacques Tati and Romain Gary. He is also a well-known translator. David Bellos was recently awarded the rank of officier in the Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres for his services to French culture.

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