The Snow Was Dirty - Penguin Classics

A brilliant new translation of Simenons critically acclaimed masterpiece.And always the dirty snow, the heaps of snow that look rotten, with black patches and embedded garbage ... unable to cover the filth.Nineteen-year-old Frank - thug, thief, son of a brothel owner - gets by surprisingly well despite living in a city under military occupation, but a warm house and a full stomach are not enough to make him feel truly alive in such a climate of deceit and betrayal. During a bleak, unending winter, he embarks on a string of violent and sordid crimes that set him on a path from which he can never return. Georges Simenons matchless novel is a brutal, compelling portrayal of a world without pity, a devastating journey through a psychological no-mans land.Among the best novels of the twentieth century New YorkerAn astonishing work John BanvilleSo noir it makes Raymond Chandler look beige Independent