Der Schnee war schmutzig

by Georges Simenon

Ein namenloses Land, von fremden Trup- pen besetzt. Der Winter will kein Ende nehmen. Frank Friedmaier wächst als Sohn einer Prostituierten in einem Bordell auf. Der 18-Jährige ist ein Kind seiner Zeit, die geprägt ist von Täuschung und Verrat. Frank hungert nach Erfahrungen, doch nichts vermag ihn zu befriedigen. Aus reiner Langeweile wird er zum Mörder und verschachert das Mädchen, das ihn liebt. Als er schließlich begreift, was er getan hat, und mit sich selbst ins Gericht geht, ist es zu spät. Ein großer, unerbittlicher Roman über die Frage, wie das Böse in die Welt kommt. Meisterlich entwirft Simenon eine Welt, in der die Regeln des menschlichen Miteinanders außer Kraft gesetzt sind, Mitgefühl und Erbarmen nichts mehr gelten, und deutet zugleich vor diesem düster-unheilvollen Hintergrund eine Liebesgeschichte an, die so surreal wie überzeugend ist.

Hardcover

Published October 4, 2018

About the author

Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (1903 – 1989) was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret.
Although he never resided in Belgium after 1922, he remained a Belgian citizen throughout his life.

Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. His oeuvre includes nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed.

He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. The first novel in the series, Pietr-le-Letton, appeared in 1931; the last one, Maigret et M. Charles, was published in 1972. The Maigret novels were translated into all major languages and several of them were turned into films and radio plays. Two television series (1960-63 and 1992-93) have been made in Great Britain.

During his "American" period, Simenon reached the height of his creative powers, and several novels of those years were inspired by the context in which they were written (Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946), Maigret à New York (1947), Maigret se fâche (1947)).

Simenon also wrote a large number of "psychological novels", such as La neige était sale (1948) or Le fils (1957), as well as several autobiographical works, in particular Je me souviens (1945), Pedigree (1948), Mémoires intimes (1981).

In 1966, Simenon was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.

In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian). In the Flemish version he ended 77th place. In the Walloon version he ended 10th place.