Simona Mambrini Livres

Jean a toujours vécu heureux avec ses deux tantes, dans son village de Marsilly, non loin de La Rochelle. Il aime son travail de bouchoteur, sa moto et une partie de billard de temps à autre ; la vie lui semble unie, simple, sans mystère. Mais un incident lui fera découvrir que le village n'est pas aussi serein qu'il le paraît et que ses tantes elles-mêmes cachent des secrets. On l'oblige à partir et, lorsqu'il revient, le village a repris son visage impassible. Curieuse sérénité...

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief and guilt in the wake of her sister's recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the "natural wonders" of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It's only with Violet that Finch can be himself -- a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who's not such a freak after all. And it's only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink

It is Friday at 5:10 PM, and Ellis has just left school. As he walks through the streets of his hometown, he dreams of his future student life when he encounters Jackie Cattle. This meeting sets off the craziest 24 hours of his life. Jackie, a shady character, persuades Ellis to join him at a party. They crash the event uninvited, as Jackie wants to prevent his girlfriend Ursa from being seduced by the attractive host, Christo. After an inevitable argument, Ellis, Jackie, Ursa, and Leona, Ursa's younger sister, flee to the "Land of Smiles," a run-down motel where the sisters have been living since their parents' death. There, Ellis meets eccentric characters. When Christo kidnaps the baby Shelley out of revenge, events spiral out of control. Ellis falls for Leona, drinks to the point of unconsciousness for the first time, and wakes up with a shaved head. In a spectacular chase, he damages his mother's car, gets tattooed by a freak, and ultimately rescues Christo and Shelley by reciting on a rooftop at a dizzying height. By Saturday at 5:10 PM, nothing is as it was.

Allemands installés en France depuis plusieurs années, les Krull tiennent une épicerie où les mariniers du canal voisin viennent boire un coup le soir, après le travail. Mais un jour, le corps d'une jeune fille est retrouvé dans le canal. Elle a été violée et étranglée. Or c'est Hans Krull, un cousin arrivé depuis peu, qui l'a découvert. Bientôt de vieilles rancunes refont surface, les accusations se précisent, les langues se délient... Ces Krull, ce sont des étrangers, non ?

Il n'était que neuf heures du matin et il faisait déjà chaud. Maigret, qui avait tombé la veste, dépouillait paresseusement son courrier en jetant parfois un coup d'oeil par la fenêtre, et le feuillage des arbres du quai des Orfèvres n'avait pas un frémissement, la Seine était plate et lisse comme de la soie. On était en août. Lucas, Lapointe et une bonne moitié des inspecteurs étaient en vacances. Janvier et Torrence avaient pris les leurs en juillet et Maigret comptait passer une bonne partie de septembre dans sa maison de Meung-sur-Loire qui ressemblait à un presbytère.

Raramente Simenon ha creato un intreccio così ricco e frizzante come in questo romanzo, definito «un Maigret senza Maigret», con alcuni celebri «comprimari»: Lucas, promosso commissario, e l'ispettore Lognon. Ambientato nei quartieri chic di Parigi, tra i caffè degli Champs-Élysées e gli alberghi di lusso attorno all'Opéra, l'autore mescola abilmente la scomparsa di un cadavere, una banda di gangster, una bellissima donna, un faccendiere ungherese, l'alta finanza, l'alta società, la Polizia giudiziaria e un rapimento in stile americano. Al centro della storia c'è Ugo Mosselbach, detto il Sorcio, un anziano barbone alsaziano, ex organista e insegnante di solfeggio, che affronta la sua condizione con un guizzo beffardo. Descritto come un ometto magro con occhi vivaci e una peluria rossiccia, il Sorcio indossa stracci con una dignità quasi elegante. La sua vita cambia quando trova un portafogli pieno di dollari, progettando di acquistare la canonica di Bischwiller-sur-Moder dove sogna di vivere. Tuttavia, il portafogli si trova accanto a un cadavere, e la sua curiosità, unita alla voglia di sfidare l'ispettore Lognon, lo spinge a intraprendere un'indagine parallela che lo catapulta in una serie di guai. Un romanzo dai toni di commedia poliziesca, magistralmente orchestrato da Simenon.