The Countess of Saint-Fiacre dies from heart failure during mass on All Soul's day, exactly when the police had been forewarned that a crime would occur.

'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves *

Maigret savoured the sensations of his youth again: the cold, stinging eyes, frozen fingertips, an aftertaste of coffee. Then, stepping inside the church, a blast of heat, soft light; the smell of candles and incense.*

The last time Maigret went home to the village of his birth was for his father's funeral. Now an anonymous note predicting a crime during All Souls' Day mass draws him back there, where troubling memories resurface and hidden vices are revealed.

Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret Goes Home.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian

Praise for Georges Simenon:

“One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” —The Guardian

“These Maigret books are as timeless as Paris itself.” —The Washington Post

“Maigret ranks with Holmes and Poirot in the pantheon of fictional detective immortals.” —People

“I love reading Simenon. He makes me think of Chekhov.” —William Faulkner

“The greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature.” —André Gide

“A supreme writer . . . Unforgettable vividness.” —The Independent (London)

“Superb . . . The most addictive of writers . . . A unique teller of tales.” —The Observer (London)

“Compelling, remorseless, brilliant.” —John Gray

“A truly wonderful writer . . . Marvelously readable—lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with the world he creates.” —Muriel Spark

“A novelist who entered his fictional world as if he were a part of it.”lle —Peter Ackroyd

“Extraordinary masterpieces of the twentieth century.” —John Banville

Autorentext
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.

Klappentext

Georges Simenon (Author)
Georges Simenon was born in Li , Belgium, in 1903. He is best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret novels and his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.

Zusammenfassung
Maigret savoured the sensations of his youth again: the cold, stinging eyes, frozen fingertips, an aftertaste of coffee. Then, stepping inside the church, a blast of heat, soft light; the smell of candles and incense. The last time Maigret went home to the village of his birth was for his father's funeral.

Leseprobe

Georges Simenon

 

THE SAINT-FIACRE AFFAIR Translated by Shaun Whiteside

PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group
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First published in French as La Messe de Saint-Fiacre by Fayard 1932
This translation first published in Penguin Books 2014

Copyright 1932 by Georges Simenon Limited
Translation copyright © Shaun Whiteside, 2014
GEORGES SIMENON ® Simenon.tm
MAIGRET ® Georges Simenon Limited

Cover © Harry Gruyaert /Magnum Photos
Cover design by Alceu Chiesorin Nunes

All rights reserved

The moral rights of the author and translator have been asserted

ISBN: 978-0-698-19382-6

Title Page

Copyright

About the Author

1. The Little Cross-Eyed Girl

2. The Missal

3. The Altar Boy

4. Marie Vassiliev

5. The Second Day

6. The Two Camps

7. Appointments in Moulins

8. An Invitation to Dinner

9. In the Spirit of Walter Scott

10. The Wake

11. The Two-Note Whistle

    EXTRA: Chapter 1 from The Flemish House

    PENGUIN CLASSICS THE SAINT-FIACRE AFFAIR ‘I love reading Simenon. He makes me think of Chekhov’

    — William Faulkner

    ‘A truly wonderful writer … marvellously readable – lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with the world he creates’

    — Muriel Spark

    ‘Few writers have ever conveyed with such a sure touch, the bleakness of human life’

    — A. N. Wilson

    ‘One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century … Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories’

    — Guardian

    ‘A novelist who entered his fictional world as if he were part of it’

    — Peter Ackroyd

    ‘The greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature’

    — André Gide

    ‘Superb … The most addictive of writers … A unique teller of tales’

    — Observer

    ‘The mysteries of the human personality are revealed in all their disconcerting complexity’

    — Anita Brookner

    ‘A writer who, more than any other crime novelist, combined a high literary reputation with popular appeal’

    — P. D. James

    ‘A supreme writer … Unforgettable vividness’

    — Independent

    ‘Compelling, remorseless, brilliant’

    — John Gray

    ‘Extraordinary masterpieces of the twentieth century’

    — John Banville ABOUT THE AUTHOR Georges Simenon was born on 12 February 1903 in Liège, Belgium, and died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life. Between 1931 and 1972 he published seventy-five novels and twenty-eight short stories featuring Inspector Maigret.

    Simenon always resisted identifying himself with his famous literary character, but acknowledged that they shared an impor…