The Strangers in the House (Romans Durs) - by Georges Simenon (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"A writer who, more than any other crime novelist, combined a high literary reputation with popular appeal." --P. D. James

Caught in a spiral of bitter seclusion and drinking since his wife abandoned him and their newborn child eighteen years ago, Hector Loursat, once a respected lawyer, now holes up, unwashed and drunk on Burgundy, in his once grand but increasingly decrepit mansion. He barely notices the goings-on under his roof or the strange, dangerous secret life his daughter and her friends are leading there.

He is shaken from his complacency by a gunshot one night and walks into the scene of a murder. Overcoming the inertia of his long isolation and inexplicably drawn to his daughter's group of young friends, he finds new engagement with the world as he seeks to clear the name of the young man accused of the killing.

Simenon, master chronicler of the dark side of the human heart, gives us a detective story that is also a tale of an improbable redemption.

About the Author

Georges Simenon (1903-1989) was born in Liège, Belgium. An intrepid traveler with a profound interest in people, Simenon strove on and off the page to understand--and not to judge--the human condition in all its shades. His books 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.

Howard Curtis lives in Norwich, England, and has translated more than a hundred books from the French, Italian, and Spanish.