One of Georges Simenon's most powerful roman durs - the non-Maigret novels in which ordinary lives are suddenly, and at times seemingly inexplicably, unsettled and irrevocably changed. Written in Simenon's spare signature style, it's unputdownably gripping -- John Gray * Guardian * Sublime . . . as good, in its unforced and unemphatic way, as anything in Proust or even Flaubert . . . a sort of masterpiece -- John Banville * New York Review of Books * Extraordinary . . . Simenon is one of the most important writers of the 20th century . . . In 150 high-pressure pages, it gives insights into the world, the mind and the horrible frustration of a French country doctor that most writers would struggle to convey with 10 times the word-count -- Sam Jordison * Independent *