Description

‘Sensuously detailed . . . edgy . . . riveting’ Financial Times

Two strangers meet on a bus along a dusty road in rural France. Tati is a tough, work-worn widow, who runs the farm her late husband left behind, while trying to keep out of the way of her predatory in-laws. Jean is an odd, quiet man, recently out of prison, with nowhere to go.

These lost souls recognize something in each other, and Jean becomes Tati’s lodger and farm worker. In the still and heat of the summer, they labour together and, inevitably, begin to sleep together. Soon, however, their strange affair will become something altogether darker.

First published in 1942 at the same time as Albert Camus’ The Outsider, this is Simenon’s existentialist masterpiece, exploring the dangerous mystery of who we are and what we desire.

‘Published, like The Outsider, in 1942, and at least equal to Camus’s work in portraying a doomed and alienated life’ David Hare

Publisher Review

Dark, disturbing . . . Simenon discovered something fundamental about the soul * Guardian * Direct, spare, sensously atmospheric, hypnotic in its realism, and honest in a way that few novelists would dare to be -- John Banville To me, Simenon is as good as Camus -- Hanif Kureishi * Guardian * Irresistible . . . read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss * The Sunday Times * When I discovered that the author of the Maigret series was also the author of stand-alone novels, my expectations of the genre changed and expanded. These books belonged more alongside Camus and Sartre than Arthur Conan Doyle. . . . Try The Widow, published, like The Outsider, in 1942, and at least equal to Camus's work in portraying a doomed and alienated life -- David Hare * Guardian *