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by Georges Simenon (Author), Howard Curtis (Translator)
In his own words, Maigret reflects on his legacy--and storytelling itself--in this metatextual meditation on narrative, policing, and truth.
Is the real Inspector Maigret the mentally agile, physically ponderous detective of Georges Simenon's famous novels? Or is this character a distorted facsimile of an actual person? In a startling turn of events, the original Jules Maigret of the Paris Police Judiciaire now takes the reins from Simenon and reveals, with self-effacing candor and some trepidation, where reality ends and skillful storytelling begins. As he well knows, his identity cannot be disentangled from his fictional alter ego's. Indeed, over the decades, the gap between "Maigret" and Maigret has only narrowed. Yet his urge to assert his individuality is, he hopes, understandable--because aren't we all discomfited when shown an image of ourselves that is almost, but not quite, true to life?
Author Biography
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.
