Lock No. 1

A new translation of Georges Simenon’s novel set in a claustrophobic provincial town.

Cars drove past along with the trucks and trams, but by now Maigret had realized that they were not important. Whatever roared by like this along the road was not part of the landscape.

What really counted was the lock, the hooting of the tugs, the stone crusher, the barges and the cranes, the two pilots’ bars, and especially the tall house where he could make out Ducrau’s red chair framed by a window. This novel has been published in a previous translation as The Lock at Charenton.

Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. Best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret books, his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.