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Title	Author	Description
Monsieur Monde Vanishes Monsieur Monde Vanishes	Georges Simenon Simenon	Unsurpassed as an evocation of milieu, whether of staid bourgeois propriety or waterfront seediness, Monsieur Monde Vanishes is another triumph by the twentieth century's greatest popular novelist. Contributors: Larry McMurtry , Jean Stewart
The Man Who Watched Trains Go By Man Who Watched Trains Go By	Georges Simenon Simenon	How different are the cautious routines of ordinary life from the compulsions of a killer? How reliable is even the most reliable man's identity? What finally is the truth about a person? Contributors: Luc Sante , Marc Romano
Dirty Snow Dirty	Georges Simenon Simenon	Dirty Snow, widely acknowledged as one of Simenon's finest books, is a study of the criminal mind comparable to Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me. Contributors: William T. Vollmann , Marc Romano and Louise Varese
Three Bedrooms in Manhattan Three Bedrooms	Georges Simenon Simenon	An actor and a divorcée meet in a deserted New York City bar. With little in common save loneliness, middle age, and a presentiment of escape, they improvise a love story. Contributors: Joyce Carol Oates , Marc Romano, Lawrence G. Blochman
Nightmare Alley Nightmare Alley	William Lindsay Gresham Gresham	Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a freak-show geek— the object of the voyeuristic crowd's gleeful disgust—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There's no way that anything like that will ever happen to him. Contributors: Nick Tosches
Fatale Fatale	Jean-Patrick Manchette Manchette	J.P. Manchette transformed the modern detective novel into a weapon of gleeful satire and anarchic fun. In Fatale, we watch with alternating horror and fascination as the deadly Aimée drifts into a sleepy provincial town, poised to make a killing. Contributors: Jean Echenoz , Donald Nicholson-Smith
Red Lights Red Lights	Georges Simenon Simenon	Red Lights, one of Simenon's romans durs, is a dark and brilliant gaze at marriage, and is Simenon writing the American psyche at his best. Contributors: Anita Brookner , Norman Denny
Act of Passion Act of Passion	Georges Simenon Simenon	Though a family man and a reasonably successful doctor, Charles Alavoine has grown dissatisfied with his existence. A casual liaison seems to promise the release he longs for, but its consequences are far deadlier than he’d anticipated. Simenon’s thriller is at once a personal confession and an indictment of modern society’s deadening moral codes. Contributors: Roger Ebert , Louise Varèse
Pedigree Pedigree	Georges Simenon Simenon	Simenon's longest and most personal novel: “Simenon brings to life in Pedigree the whole sensory world of his childhood in Liège. His words capture the sounds, sights, tastes, smells, and textures of the city… Simenon does for Liège what the young Joyce did for Dublin: he evokes the city with such immediacy that we feel we've walked in its streets.” —Lucille Frackman Becker Contributors: Luc Sante , Robert Baldick
The Widow Widow	Georges Simenon Simenon	Two outcasts, a widow and a recently released murderer, become involved in a love triangle with the girl next door. Published in the same year and often compared to The Stranger, The Widow is one of Simenon's most powerful and disturbing romans durs. Contributors: Paul Theroux , John Petrie