`A unique teller of tales... What interested Simenon was the average man losing control of his own fate` Observer `She was beautiful, full of vitality, and he was sixteen years older, a dusty, lonely bookseller whose only passion in life was collecting stamps.` Jonas is used to his young wife disappearing.
Everyone in the town knows that she goes off with other men. This time, however, he tells a small lie to protect her, saying she is visiting a ...