This author's psychological novels include one in which the Dutch clerk Kees Popinga descends into a life of crime after losing his life savings, and one about a pimp-turned-thief named Frank Friedmaier, who lives in an unspecified country under German occupation.
In a novel by this author, the Norwegian sailor Olaf Swaan and the Russian Fyodor Yurevich are among the people who bear an uncanny resemblance to the notorious Latvian criminal Peter. This author's psychological novels include one in which the Dutch clerk Kees Popinga descends into a life of crime after losing his life savings, and one about a pimp-turned-thief named Frank Friedmaier, who lives in an unspecified country under German occupation. He referred to those novels as (*) romans durs ["row-MAH dure"], meaning "hard novels." In 2013, Penguin embarked on an ambitious project to publish translations of 75 novels by this author of The Man Who Watched Trains Go By and Dirty Snow. For 10 points, name this absurdly prolific Belgian author who created the detective Jules Maigret.
In a novel by this author, the Norwegian sailor Olaf Swaan and the Russian Fyodor Yurevich are among the people who bear an uncanny resemblance to the notorious Latvian criminal Peter.
Georges Simenon