William Vollmann
"The king of the noir novels."


Hans Koning
"One of the very few novels to come out of German-occupied France that gets it exactly right."


—Patricia Highsmith, New York Times Book Review, 1969
"Every artist has a personality, his own spectacles . . . Simenon’s spectacles may be said to be of pure glass, distorting nothing."


—Julian Symons
"[Simenon] is regarded by his greatest admirers as a novelist comparable with Balzac."


Book Description
Dirty Snow, widely acknowledged as one of Simenon's finest books, is a study of the criminal mind comparable to Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me. It tells the story of Frank, a pimp, a petty thief, and collaborator in occupied France. Through the long and unrelenting cold and darkness of a long winter Frank pursues all the possibilites of perdition until at last there is nowhere left to go. Hans Koning has described Dirty Snow as "one of the very few novels to come out of German-occupied France that gets it exactly right." Simenon maps a no man’s land of the spirit in which human nature is driven to destruction—and redemption, perhaps, as well—by forces beyond its control.


About the Author
Georges Simenon was one of the most popular and esteemed novelists of the 20th century. He wrote close to 200 novels, many devoted to the legendary Inspector Maigret.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Nineteen-year-old Frank Friedmaier lives in a country under occupation. Most people struggle to get by; Frank takes it easy in his mother's whorehouse, which caters to members of the occupying forces. But Frank is restless. He is a pimp, a thug, a petty thief, and, as Dirty Snow opens, he has just killed his first man.

Through the unrelenting darkness and cold of an endless winter, Frank will pursue abjection until at last there is nowhere to go.

Hans Koning has described Dirty Snow as "one of the very few novels to come out of German occupied France that gets it exactly right.

In a study of the criminal mind that is comparable to Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me, Simenon maps a no man's land of the spirit in which human nature is driven to destruction - and redemption, perhaps, as well - by forces beyond its control.