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Letter To My Judge
  • Published: 18 August 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241808092
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $28.99

Letter To My Judge

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
18 Aug 2026
EBook
14 May 2026
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A dark, psychological tale of deadly obsession, in a masterful new translation

My dear Judge, I would like one man, just one, to understand me. And I really hope that man can be you.

In a small town in western France, Dr Charles Alavoine seems to lead the perfect life: his own medical practice, two beautiful children, a new wife and a doting mother. Yet as each quiet day of bourgeois conformity passes, Alavoine begins to feel a sharp sense of futility and solitude. Then, one rainy day in December, he meets a mysterious young woman on a station platform. Fascinated by her innocence and the scars of her past, Alavoine’s passion soon gives way to obsession, as he is drawn deeper into a web of desire and deceit, ending in a terrible act that will forever change the course of his life.

First published in 1947, Letter to My Judge is a masterful exploration of the darkest corners of the human soul, and a harrowing exorcism of Simenon’s phantoms.
  • Published: 18 August 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241808092
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $28.99
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Also by Georges Simenon

The Cat
Stan the Killer
The Widow Couderc
The Hatter's Ghosts
The New Investigations of Inspector Maigret
The Venice Train
The People Opposite
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Praise for Letter To My Judge

The people in Simenon’s romans durs ("hard novels") are driven and helpless, and [Letter to My Judge] ends, as it must, in tragedy. Has there ever been a more penetrating account of love’s destructive power?

John Banville, Wall Street Journal

One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories

Guardian

The novels brim with atmosphere, insight and intelligence . . . quite unlike anything else written before or since

India Knight, The Times

A great writer of detail, of atmosphere

Leïla Slimani, Financial Times

Irresistible... read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss

Sunday Times